The Vampire and the Wolf
by Lalaland972
Summary: A short, side story following the end of "Five Years" from "Jessica's Happily Ever After?" that goes down an AU from the continuation of that Arc. Heads up: This will be a JessicaxJacob pairing. Like I said, it's an AU. "Forever is a long, long time and time has a way of changing things." - The Fox and the Hound.
1. Chapter 1

_Please do not read further unless you have read the prequel, want to be confused, and/or don't mind spoilers! _

**Warning. Don't embark on this Story Arc if you don't like to challenge the status quo of the storyline from before. Just let that story end where we left off. Otherwise, please proceed.**

This story now starts off with the original chapter 9 from the end of Edward Arc in JHEA which is now being updated with a new ending (Feb. 2020). Scroll to the end of this chapter to catch the beginning of the "Vampire of the Wolf" Ch1 if you're a reader already familiar with this Edward Arc ending, otherwise, please read further for context.

* * *

**Jessica's Happily Ever After?**

_Sequel to "But Why am I Jessica?"_

**Chapter 9**

**[Edward Arc]**

"**Five Years"**

_[Jessica's POV]_

_Thirsty._ That was the first word echoing in my mind when my eyes fluttered open. Every movement I performed after becoming conscious I expected would be to appease that carnal desire. I needed something to sooth the raw ache in my throat. The roaring burn was calling out for something.

_What does it want? Who am I?__** What am I?**_

I pushed myself off the bed I awoke in and found that I broke it in half with no effort. _Is that normal?_

Golden eyes met mine in the doorway. They belonged to a petite girl with short hair and a man with bronze hair. A quick turn of the head confirmed it was my only way out. They were-_ no, fuck this I need to find it._

I pushed past them as I went about to find a source to feed my thirst. Their efforts to hold me back were trivial. Apparently, I was stronger than them? Which was great. I needed to find some of it.

They called after me. _I think?_ They have a name for me. I was focused on finding my exit in the house I found myself in. Every angle of each shape my eyes absorbed was clear and distinct._ Why do these hallways never end? _More people with gold eyes were in my vision. My assessment was they were blocking my path. Preventing me from my objective to satisfy my hunger. I snarled at them in protest. Who they were was inconsequential to what I **needed**. I didn't even know who I was. I was driven by this thirst. I wouldn't let them stop me.

I picked up my speed to barrel through them and found myself accelerating at a pace I was certain my body had never traveled at before. That was muscle memory at its finest. _At least_ that memory worked.

All five of the lot pinned me down. I knew I was stronger. Not from a physical test yet, but I could see it in their eyes. Each golden orb my eyes swept over carried concern, and my strength was building confidence off of it._ I can fight them off. _Then I could find the source of what I needed. **Now!** Or surely, I would die from this thirst.

"Jessica?" I snarled in response. _Is that my name? Is that what I am called? _Muscle memory doesn't translate to brain memory unfortunately. _Who am I? What am I?_

I grunted my answer as my eyes conveyed contempt at the figures holding me back, "**I don't know!**"

"You don't know who you are?"

"I know what I want. I want to…" An image of red, thick flowing liquid popped into my head so I could finish my sentence. "Drink **blood**." My nostrils flared into overdrive on inhaling. I was sniffing. I forgot I could do that. None of them seemed to have what I needed. How could they not have blood? What were they? Was I one of them?

The petite one I first saw when I woke up appeared in front of me _too_ quickly. "Katie?" She asked a question but to whom it was directed I wasn't sure. I lunged my chest forward in attempt to break free from their hold. It would not break. If one of them let go...I knew I could break free. They were struggling against my persistent refusal to remain tied down.

"What have I done?" The petite girl asked the room as she backed away. I wasn't sure what she had done and didn't speculate to care as this wasn't resolving my thirst. **And** I was _so_ thirsty. _Can I die from not satisfying this need?_

The bronze haired man approached the petite girl. He avoided eye contact with me. He seemed inferior or scared. Or so I assumed since he wasn't man enough to hold me down with the others. _I need to get out of here!_ I snapped my teeth at the arm closest to my face. Someone's fist made contact with my cheek and I didn't budge. That didn't seem right. Was I a living statue now?

A metal contraption was forced over my mouth despite my jerking protest of refusal. _Who the fuck slipped that on me?_ I needed to quench this unyielding thirst. I had to leave. My body seized with a sheer force of determination to escape. A rising panic inhabited my body as I was certain I would die if I didn't drink blood soon.

_Blood. Blood. Thirsty. I need to drink it. _

"It was a rare chance she would forget, Alice. Jasper's calming affect isn't working. He can sense how confused and thirsty she is. Her memories could come back..." This justification possibly was about me. I did not give a fuck though. I just needed to drink it already. _I am going to die. Here and now._ _And they are __**fucking**__ going to let me die. _

"And she **DIDN'T want this**!" The blonde owner of the raging voice slipped up. Her grip on me loosened for a second when she lost her temper and I took my chance. All their eyes widened in terror as I broke free and took off. It was my win. I was stronger and faster. I concluded this with the man power it took to hold me down. I just needed to get the damn trap off. Distance first though.

I was blindly running into trees in the wilderness I found myself in. _Blood. Any blood would do at this point. But this damn contraption! If I let up, they could catch me. How do I avoid them? What if blood gave me more strength? I need blood. Remove this thing first though. _

My eyes landed on a jagged rock that looked fit to break the damn thing. I plucked it from the ground before scaling a tree. Height seemed like a good advantage. _Unless they can smell me? Are they like me? Fast and with superior smelling abilities? __What am I?_

It only took one hit and the locking mechanism on the back of the trap unhinged. I watched it fall to the ground in pleasure as I slid my tongue over my teeth. My tongue swiftly outlined each tooth's sharp razor edge cut to a deathly precision. _Perfect. _Excellent for drinking blood. _Do I bite and suck? That seems right? _Any blood would do right now. _**Any**__._

I looked below me when I heard rustling of foliage. My nose wrinkled in pleasure as their scent wafted in- a mix of smoke, pine and flesh from my prey. My mouth was salivating.

But my eyes beheld nothing despite my nose insisting they were there. How near were they? Humans. Blood dispensers. My need would soon be satisfied. I found myself on the ground after a graceful leap from 30 feet in the air. _Is that normal? I don't remember. _

I let my determination to find the source of satisfying my hunger take control. _We_ would find that blood. Every step I took put me closer to my target. Seconds passed before my eyes locked on **TWO **blood supplies. A man and a boy. They had guns cocked in their hands. Were they hunters? Were they hunting me? _Seems fair since it turns out I am hunting them._ _It's nothing personal. They're just my meal it seems. My first, I think?_

I watched them like a hawk. I figured it was fast enough to take them both out at once. But that unsettled me. My thirst wanted to squash that thought, but the unsettling feeling would not waver. _I probably just only need one._ Probably the man. He would have a higher quantity of blood to consume. I could spare the kid. His blood was probably not ripe enough anyways. If that was a thing.

"Now Daniel-"

_Do I know a Daniel?_ I shook my head. I knew nothing. Just what I needed. I snuffed out anymore thoughts in my brain and let my natural predator consume me. _Blood._ _Now is the time._ I sniffed the sweet scent of my meal before lunging forward-

A tight grip on my shoulder stopped me mid lunge before flinging me down to the ground. Before I could rise up to react, I was covered in the same hoard of bodies as before. Pinned down.** And** I was oh _so_ close. _So close _to tasting what I was born to consume.

Darkness fell over my eyes as I was being blinded by something. Next followed a new metal trap on my mouth and my wrists were bound. _Can't I fight this? I need to drink-_

"Katie." In the dark environment where all my weapons and senses were being stripped away, they allowed me my hearing at least. "We're going to take you back home, okay? It's going to be okay. We will figure this out. We found each other here for a reason. _Always_, Katie, _always_." The soft voice dipped at the end. It was soothing but it didn't diminish my need for blood. Before I could growl in frustration at everything in this god forsaken world, my mind blended in with the darkness now too.

* * *

_[Jacob POV]_

"What do you **mean **Jessica is missing?" I almost snapped my cell phone in half when my grip tightened on it. Bella had to be mistaken or someone misinformed her. It was possible Jessica took her wallowing to the extreme, _again_. My neck tensed as I recalled her promise to not pull that bullshit again. _Liar._

"Bells, _honey_, calm down." I hoped my soothing tone would carry over to Bella because it was difficult to make out her words. I picked up on her faint whimpering which meant Bella was crying. Bella_ rarely_ cried. **RARELY**. When she had, it was over Edward months ago. Maybe this was serious?

"Explain to me why she is missing? If it is not a mix-up, we can go looking for her. Just explain to me what happened, sweetie." When my last words were leaving my lips, I noticed my feet were pacing around my bedroom.

"Bells?" I asked again. My pacing had evolved into quick, erratic movements. I huffed before exiting my bedroom. There wasn't enough space inside the house for this idle energy I was exerting. I decided to direct my feet to do their thing outside.

"Jake, Angela told me. Her parents were asked by the Stanley's to help in a search party. This isn't some word of mouth false rumor," Bella's quaking voice rippled paranoia down my spine. I squeezed my eyes shut. _We will be in touch soon. Bye Jake. That was what she last said to me. __**She meant it**__. Did something really happen to her or did she disappear on us again absentmindedly to mend her broken heart? Dammit Jessica! What the f**k are you pulling here? _Sweat was beading on my forehead as I reigned in focus to follow along with what Bella was telling me. "…so it is pretty serious. Apparently, she left a note about going for a hike before heading off to school and she never returned to school. They are still looking for her car too-"

The phone was abandoned in the air and accompanied by my ripped clothing. My body altered into my wolf without hesitation as I began to run to Forks. I needed to track down Jessica.

I relentlessly searched for her in the woods. I picked up on nothing. The recent storm could have _possibly _covered up her sent. Today was Wednesday and she went missing on Sunday…she should still be alive. She is a fighter.

_Jacob, Jake, _too many voices echoed in my mind while I was concentrating on catching a whiff of her scent. She often smelled like vanilla from her shampoo. I would know that scent _anywhere_. I just needed a small hint of it to pick up on.

_We'll help. Embry – _I blocked out Sam's orders for the search party while I focused on the area around me. She had to be okay. She was my 'A-game Jessica'. She wouldn't do this to me, her friends or family. She wouldn't just disappear- _**Cullen's!**_

A snarl ripped through my throat as I altered my direction to track down the bloodsuckers. _If they- no she broke up with __**him**__. They would have no influence over her. They wouldn't dare to- I just have to be sure. Count them out and I will continue to look for her._

I exerted my body to its limit in order to reach their residence in a matter of minutes. Time wasn't on Jessica's side. I needed to look for her, but they had to be crossed off the list first.

_Jake, not without one of us! Wait!_

_**No, Sam**__. I need to know! _I couldn't wait the minutes it would take for them to catch up to me. Every second counted and I needed answers.** Now**. Jessica would understand when I found her that I just had to make sure. She would get it. She had my back and I would have hers. Even after everything that happened. She wanted to stay human. She had a lifetime of friendship to endure with me. Every second I spent thinking on Jessica exponentially increased my adrenaline. _I will find her._

The Cullen's mansion was before my eyes before I knew it. It looked…empty with a passing glance. A low growl bellowed through me even though I was positive I was misunderstanding what I was seeing. My steps once deliberate and quick became hesitant. The padding of my feet felt the disturbance of the soil underneath them. I bent my muzzle down to assess it. _The tire tracks embedded in the ground are well worn despite being fresh. Possibly, carrying heavy loads and repetitive movements created them? What am I, Sherlock Holms?_

I carried myself forward to the house with the urgency I should have never lost for even a second. My nose trailed along the perimeter. The scent of the parasites was faint. They had been here but _were not_ presently here. My body propelled to the first open window I could find.

In front of the glass, my body began to sway slightly as my legs stumbled backwards. An ear-piercing howl cleaved through my soul.

_Jake! Don't- _

I shattered the glass window with my body as I removed the obstacle preventing me from getting inside the _empty_ house. My eyes wildly search every corner and crevice. It was a clean sweep. Not an even an eyelash was left behind to remind anyone that the Cullen's once inhabited this house. I knew though because I could smell them and…_her_. The faint whisper of vanilla swirled through my demanding nostrils. Her scent was as faded by the timeline of her going missing. _**CULLEN'S!**_

Rage shook my body as my legs carried me back outside. My eyes collided with those of my brother's. My pack was here. And we were about to begin a hunt. Their timely disappearance with Jessica going missing was enough to persuade Sam to let us track them. If we found them, we found Jessica. Would she be alive though?

_**Jake!**_ My wolf insubordinately barked at my Alpha for diminishing my train of thought. When I became aware of my thoughtless actions, I lowered my head in apology. _Sorry Sam._

_You need to focus right now. We found Jessica's car. _Every muscle in my body tightened. Waiting on Sam's next words. _It was abandoned near a trail head. In line with what her note said. But… _My heart began to pound against my ribcage. _It reeks of leech. It is a set-up by the Cullen's. _

Ferocious howls erupted from the pack as we agreed on Sam's plan to split and search. We had limits. Or the rest of them had limits, I, however, would track them down to the ends of the earth if they hurt Jessica. **Or worse**…turned her into one of _them_.

_Hold on Jess, I am coming for you! _My ragged breaths matched my pace as I set out to find Jessica and kill every leech in my path on my way to her.

…

Bella sighed into my chest as I pulled her in closer to me. I needed this comfort. More than she could understand. I laced my fingers into her hands before she shifted her head to look up at me. "Jake, I know you don't want to hear this…but maybe she wanted to go with them. It's been six months. Maybe she wanted to change. I did once too…" I struggled to understand the words sputtering off her lips. While they were delicately delivered through innocence, each one uttered was a secret form of betrayal to me. I didn't have to think twice before I shook my head in refusal to accept this. I couldn't bear to look at Bella any longer while she said such a _vile _thing. **Jessica did not want to become one of them.** She wanted to live. She had _so much_ to live for. **And **she broke up with him. They killed her or forced her. There was no in-between or option C. But if I mentioned that to Bella again, it would fall on deaf ears. She just didn't understand Jessica like I did. Bells was blinded by her time with the sparkly parasite. He didn't have the same effect on Jess though…

"I won't give up on her yet. Her trail was fresh when we first caught her sent but it disappeared after Canada. The new smells were overwhelming to pick up on the faint hint we had on her once we crossed the border." Bella offered a noncommittal shrug before brushing her fingers down my spine. I once found this gesture of her touch comforting. In this moment, I figured it was her attempt to suede me over to her side of complacency with Jessica's "decision". I didn't buy it. I never would. It was beginning to become a sore point in our relationship.

Bella's brown eyes bulged when I grabbed her finger's mid-stroke and returned them to her side. I removed myself from the couch with an abrupt force that I almost knocked Bella off the couch in the process. "Sorry," I mumbled. "I forgot the time. I need to start my shift soon."

"Jacob…you're not wearing your watch." My eyes glanced over to my left wrist. _Empty._ She was right. I was missing the classic leather watch she got me for my last birthday.

"Internal clock, Bells." I winked to throw off suspicion. I even followed up with a wolfish grin. The crease of concern between Bella's eyes disappeared when she returned my smile with a nod of reassurance. I leaned over to stroke her hair. My fingers caressed her soft brown locks before I planted a chaste kiss on the top of her head.

"Call me later?" Bella's eyes began to brighten as she assumed we were back on track and that the Jessica issue was just swept under the rug again.

My lips moved but words refused to immediately form. To buy time, I nodded my head while fighting to hold my grin. Finally, words escaped. "Of course, honey."

I grabbed my school backpack and walked out of Chief Swan's house wondering how many more times I would be willing to return to it with a girlfriend complacent over the disappearance of one of her _once_ 'good friends'. A familiar green Sudan passed my eyes on the road ahead of me before I focused on my bike. I jangled the keys in my hand one last time before shoving them back into the front pocket of my backpack. I blew past my bike and used my familiar short cut to the woods. Once hidden amongst the trees, I stripped and took on my preferred form as of late. I bent my nose to the ground and once again set my sites on making it to the Canadian border. She had to be somewhere over there still, _if_ she was alive.

There was one persistent question I squashed down every time it tried to surface. For a second, I let it slip in the cracks and ask, _If she turned unwillingly, wouldn't she have come back by now? They did 'stage' her death…_

* * *

_[Daniel POV]_

"Daniel, we are going to be late. It starts in twenty minutes!" Mom's frantic voice carried up to my room. I knew she was shouting from downstairs. She didn't like coming upstairs. Every time she saw Jessica's bedroom, she broke down. I was the one who had to deal with looking at it every day. I stopped crying when I passed it months ago though.

I sighed when I reviewed the blank math homework worksheet in front of me. I couldn't hand in another blank assignment at school tomorrow, but I needed to go with mom to grief therapy. Dad was against it. He would have supported me if I opted **not** to go. I went for mom though. She needed that lifeline. I was half afraid she would quit, if I stopped going as well. Dad was out after the first one proved to be a bust for him. I didn't mind going, _really_. I never talked. I let our lessons go one ear and out the other for the most part.

I walked outside to find my mom sitting in the front seat of her green Sudan with an anxious expression on her face. Her facial features softened when she caught on to my presence. She looked at the passenger seat next to her to invite me to sit upfront, but I walked to the back of the car. I knew Jessica would remark I was still too young to sit in the front seat due to my height and weight. She would have been right.

"Do you remember Angela, hun?" Mom was looking at me through the rearview mirror when she asked her question. I nodded. "I talked to her parents today, looks like she is doing okay this semester. They were hoping she wouldn't have to drop out again. It seems like her grief counselor has made an impact on her…" Her voice dropped but I knew what she was hinting at without finishing her thought. She wanted us to see this through. If we weren't going to talk to each other, we needed some way to deal with it. At least for my mom. I was doing fine with burying it when we buried _her _body.

…

Just my luck, today's group was small which increased the odds of the group lead prying me to _share_. The four sessions before were all talk. It was easy to tune out. Today, it seemed I had an activity to participate in. Now, I would never be forced into doing anything, but…I knew my mom liked to hear what I did during this time. It was for her benefit I would share our group's topic of discussion that day. And today…I would get to show her what we made. _Hooray…_

I tried not to scoff at the announcement of our project for the session because I was the oldest in the group today. I had to be mature. Even though I was _just _11… _Thank god this is just an hour long._

I looked out at the other youngins in our group receiving some _stupid _ceramic flower pot. Seven-year old Emma lost her Mom. Both Derek and Eli, nine, lost their Dad's. Today, I was the only one in the group that lost a sibling. You had to lose a close family member to be able to enroll in their grief therapy service. When I accepted my ceramic pot, I tried not to grimace. I _really_ did. But I could tell I wasn't trying hard enough based on the disappointed face Mike, today's group counselor, was giving me.

Sure, I was a good kid. I did as I was instructed. Take the stupid markers and draw pictures that represent your life. We weren't told what to draw. When each kid asked, Mike insisted whatever they felt represented their life. Emma drew a lot of unicorns. A cat. And her family. I didn't focus long on Derek and Eli's but assumed they were a tad more sophisticated in their life depiction than Emma. As for me? I carelessly drew some images to represent baseball, Harry Potter, and I all but hesitated when it came to drawing my family. I wasn't sure if I could include Jessica now that she was gone. We buried her three months ago when Chief Swan's team finally recovered her body. It was mostly unrecognizable from the decay. But…her necklace was on her for the ID. The one mom and dad got her for her birthday. The silver was untarnished, and you could read the inscription as if they had just given it to her the day before. My mom now wore it around her neck instead of her cross.

I decided to draw Jessica in our family in the end. She was still my sister.

When the marker dropped from my hand, Mike was informing us it was time for the next phase of our project. My eyebrows shot up to my hairline dumbfounded. I thought this was it. Then next time we plant a flower to grow something in it with a flowery representation of life after death.

Well, I was almost on the money.

Mike made us smash our pots in a plastic bag. Then we collected the broken pieces and were instructed to reconstruct our pot with glue (and/or tape). The only hitch, we had to leave out one piece from the assembly. The meaning of the task was lost on me, but I glued all the pieces back together. A huge chunk of the pot spanned two of my drawings. It seemed like a challenge to rebuild it with the big chunk of the pot missing. It was the size of my two thumbs put together, so not too big to make it an impossible task. I was a Lego master builder after all. This would be a cake walk.

I smiled at my reassembled pot when I finished. Being lost in the task of gluing this ugly pot together was the first time I had fun in a group session. It was…_kinda_ nice.

I looked around the room. The youngins were struggling. I attempted to help out Emma with getting her pot assembled, but Mike asked that I let her do it herself. I felt my face twist in confusion as I returned to my seat and freshly glued ugly pot. When everyone was finished, Mike began his message for the closing words of our group session.

"Today, you all drew your representation of _your_ _life_ on your pot. Then you broke it and reassembled it without a piece of the original pot. What you have performed in the last hour, is what your future journey in grief is going to look like. When you dropped your pot, that was the impact of losing your mom, dad or sister." My hand reached out to grip my pot. I clung it to my chest. "After you experience that pain, you have to put your life back together. But when you do…you'll notice there is a piece of you missing. But you all still have a reconstructed pot, right? Rebuilt by yourselves." Mark winked at me on his last comment and it sunk in why he didn't want me to help Emma. "Right now, you are just starting to reassemble yourself. You will eventually complete the journey, but you won't get that missing piece back. But you can live on without it. We are here to help you figure out how to do that. Your grief will be a never-ending journey, but I promise it will get better in time." My free hand not gripping my pot, brushed the tips of my fingers under my eyes. Moisture brimmed the edge of my fingers. _Just when I thought I was done crying over this…_ And the loss of my sister waved through me again as I finally gave in. I could cry here. It was a safe space.

…

"Daniel, how did it go?" Dad asked me as a courtesy and nothing more after I walked in through the front door of the house. He was trying. I knew that. Mom wasn't as forgiving. But…that was their problem to deal with. I waved my patched up flower pot at him and remarked with my usual go to response, "fine". I headed upstairs before he could pretend to follow up with more commentary.

I should have been asleep by now, especially since I still wasn't going to work on my homework. I still had the 'my sister is dead' card to play. Eventually it would stop working, but it hadn't yet… Instead of sleeping, I endlessly rubbed the chunk of ceramic that was missing from my flower pot. An idea sparked into my mind and I jumped out of bed. I looked at my alarm clock. _11 pm is late enough that they should both be asleep._ I crept down the stairs and headed to the garage. Dad's workshop. It was _not_ empty though.

"Dad?" I asked when I saw him hovered over _the_ green stool. Dad picked up his head and attempted to discreetly wipe away his tears. My mouth fell open as I was close enough to see the red hue of his eyes surrounding his iris. Dad wasn't a crier. He didn't even cry at _her _funeral.

"Hey sport…" Dad's raspy voice struck a chord in my heart. I had never seen my dad break down before. But this was appropriate. It was his _only _daughter and…_Jessie_ was a Daddy's girl. Dad pushed the stool in the back of one of his workspace cabinet's like he was hiding some dirty secret. He didn't have to do that in front of me. I was one of the two left who understood what he was going through. What her loss meant to _us_.

I felt the ceramic piece shift in my fingers. Dad took notice of my action and raised his eyebrow in a questioning way. I stilled my hand and raised the piece of ceramic in the air for him to get a better look at. His eyebrows pulled down in confusion. "I wanted to borrow a drill to make a hole in this. I want to wear it on a necklace."

Dad's face shifted into a thoughtful expression as his forehead crinkled to process my request. "A drill would be too rough. By the looks of that ceramic, it could break. I have something else in mind. Care to explain why you want to hang a piece of pottery around your neck?" Dad began to sift through his toolbox, and I recounted my lesson at grief therapy. That night… my dad and I both glued one piece back on the pot for each other.

* * *

_One year later after Jessica was bitten…_

_[Jessica's POV]_

"Come on, Jess! It's time!" Alice announced with too much excitement for my own taste. I shook my head at her with a passive smile on my face. They were making a big deal out of nothing. In the grand scheme, this one-year celebration would be nominal compared to,_ well_, forever.

I let Alice intertwine her fingers through mine and lead me back to the house. She kept her eyes forward while mine absorbed every detail of the world surrounding us. I had nothing to compare it to. What my senses took in before living this life. Was the world always this clear and beautiful? Every blade of grass, every tree limb, each creature's minute details from a spider's web to a butterfly's wings? Each was unique and not a repetitive beauty. Even each member in our family had defining characteristics that magnified their beauty and weren't just cookie cutter golden eyes and pale skin.

I tried not to fixate on our appearances so much though. Something in me persisted it was not important. I was supposed to focus on what was on the inside. I attributed it to who I was before. Her personality was a mystery to me aside from what Edward and Alice revealed.

They saved me. Alice was my sister. Edward was my mate. Those were the three key points from the stories I was told. I wasn't aware of anything outside of my bloodlust the first three months outside of my birth. _They_…don't like to review the events of what happened in the earliest of that time for me. _Too_ painful. I assume with time the memories will be less fresh and they can deliver the truth. Finding out doesn't change anything for me, but I am just curious. It was my birth after all, and I cannot recall anything in my human life. I just want to know. Alice often quips to me that curiosity killed the cat. Which is ironic since my sister _can _see the future. My mate can hear other's thoughts. Jasper can play with other's emotions. Carlisle and Esme are just plain ol' vampires. They think I am not one as well. Edward couldn't read my mind before and apparently cannot now as well. They think I have some repellant to mental vampire powers – untested at this point though. Which sounds like some voodoo you would read about in some YA novel on vampires. I want to read some of those books for research. Edward insists it is all blasphemy, but who knows what kind of stuff is out there. I have to wait longer before I can buy some of that literature from a bookstore. There is still doubt amongst the others that I can control myself around humans despite my strictly _vegetarian_ diet. I also want to leave Canada and travel more-

"Jess?" I met Alice's perplexed eyes as I was reigned from my aimless thoughts. I had eternity to think over everything anyways. Alice was fully facing me as I stood over her by a good three inches. I liked to tease her on this. Being the taller _but_ younger sister.

I reached forward and smoothed her black whispy bangs back into the straight line across her forehead that she always preferred. Her eyes dropped their confused shield and began to relax. "I was just taking in everything. We live in such a beautiful world." Alice was all smiles with my response.

"It gets old eventually," Alice chuckled as she turned around to finish our journey. We were closing in on the house. As vampires, we lacked warmth. The basic physical description of our kind was one of the first lessons I remembered in the early days. At that point, I was used to drinking animal blood but was still monitored in that dark room with shack- **no!** I cut off that trail of thought before I ventured down a treacherous path. I mentally shook it off. _Happy thoughts._ As vampires, we lacked warmth. But…when my sister held my hand, I swore the sensation prickling my dead senses must have been what heat felt like. _I think._ I had no experience to draw off of from the time when I could recall such a feeling, but it was fun to imagine what that and other senses must have felt like as a human. It was a secret game I played with myself.

My emotions sprung into overdrive when my eyes fell upon _him _waiting for me at the door outside the house. Edward. _My Edward_. Out of the corner of my eyes I caught Alice playfully roll her eyes before she released my hand. She stepped aside as I felt myself glide to Edward. An amused smile played across his beautiful lips as he mouthed "hi" to me. If I had a heart, I was confident it would have stopped beating in that very moment. Or any moment he was in my view. I don't know how I landed him in my human form, but good lord, well done Jess.

Edward's hand stroked my cheek before he claimed my lips with his own. Each kiss between us never diminished in passion. I could never get enough of him, and lucky for me that feeling was mutual. Often, he expressed he loved me more, but I doubted that. I would spend an eternity proving that to him as well.

Alice eventually grew tired at my relentless need to be glued to his lips. "Alright, pick it up later you two," she muttered with a feigned annoyance. I giggled as I pulled away from Edward. Before I tore myself away from getting lost in his eyes, I felt the familiar resurgence of my tongue knotting and shivered at the adoration radiating from his gold eyes. Every moment I looked in them, I knew he saw me. This soul he said he would love no matter what body it inhabited. The first and only time he told me that, it seemed odd. I detected no lies in what he told me. It was a sweet sentiment. I assumed his implied intention was that even though I forgot about him since I turned, we found our way back to loving each other. Just like with my sister…Alice.

Edward opened the door and the celebration was in full swing upon our entrance.

…

Edward astutely picked up on when I was growing tired of the party. He gracefully took my hand before leading me outside. Despite being the guest of honor, the party didn't skip a beat with my absence. I attributed that to the surprise guest appearance of Rosalie and Emmett. This was my first time to meet them. I had only heard about then in limited passing until tonight. Emmett was a riot and the life of the party from the moment he arrived. Rosalie…was not as thrilled about being in attendance. From the few passing glances I let myself have, she kept a closed off front. The two had a falling out with our family before I turned. No one ever spoke on it though…

My eyes flicked to the full moon outside before settling on Edward's wide grin. "You didn't like to celebrate _your _birthday before either." My interest peaked up on the mentioning of my human life. These days, stories from that time were divulged to me on rare occasions. I squeezed Edward's hand in encouragement to continue to avoid revealing _how much_ I was _dying _to know. I _**craved**_ to know more.

When the silence continued, I caved. "How so?" I feigned a nonchalant attitude with my question as I diverted my eyes back to the moon.

"You didn't want to tell me. Let's just say you radiated contempt when you were surprised at school. You didn't care for presents either, you just said you were a simple girl who doesn't need much from others. Thinking more on it, I figured out you just wanted their time."

"Why was that?" _I think I know why. But what if I am wrong?_

"I can only speculate, but you valued it because you and Alice were orphaned when you were young. Time was important to you because you weren't sure how much time you were allotted with someone you cared for." I nodded my head in approval. I was thinking the same thing.

"But now I have forever with you both." I flashed Edward a seductive smile. My mouth parted into an 'O' shape before I added, "and the rest of our family." My smile didn't falter with my cover up. _I meant to include them initially of course as well. __**I really did.**__ They all are my family. _Guilt smothered my consciousness as I avoid Edward's gaze with my slip up.

Edward stretched his arms out and I stepped into them seeking his love. His arms wrapped tight around me. The light feather touch of his fingers stroking my back filled my soul with a calm and certainness that he wasn't upset over my oversight of our family. "I love you," he whispered into my ear before tracing my hair behind my ears. He planted his lips on my neck and I shivered with gratification at his simple touch.

"Jess," Edward released his hold on me and backed away so I could take in every inch of his delicious form in my eyes. Love and lust intermixed as I beheld the sight of my mate in front of me. He was perfect. _What did I do to deserve him?_ A handsome smile broke out on his face after he studied mine. Although he couldn't read my thoughts, what he read in my eyes could not have been a mystery to him.

With one fluid motion, Edward bent down to one knee and withdrew a silver box from the pocket of his pants. My eyes widened at the implied gesture. Edward's smooth demeanor dropped for once and his voice trembled while he revealed the contents of the box. "Will you do me the honor of marrying me?" My eyes bounced between the apprehension dancing in his eyes and the gold band in the box. My throat clenched as my fingers enclosed around the ring. It was a braided gold band. Simple. Perfectly me. I slid it on my left ring finger and croaked out, "Of course I will". The second Edward covered me in kisses while I was entangled in his arms, our family surrounded us whooping and hollering in joy. My smile was returned but each one of them. _Except_…Rosalie. She held a tight smile that looked forced. I figured she needed time to warm up to me. We had _all _the time in the world, and maybe they would rejoin our family soon. I liked the idea of growing our family. It seemed…right.

…

"Jess, why do you stare at the sun so often? I mean it's not like it's going to kill your eyes but..." Alice asked softly. I thought on her question. I didn't have a reason, but some words forced themselves up that had an answer for her.

"It reminds me of something. _Or someone_. Maybe from before I turned? I think I viewed them as my sun? Or something silly like that." I laughed at the ridiculous response I offered her.

"Probably Edward?"

"_Probably_." I felt my smile tighten. It was telling me something, but I wasn't sure what it was. I shook it off and took my eyes off the sun to look at Alice.

"Hey..._always_." I held up my left palm to her. Just below it my scar shimmered in the sun. It carefully encircled my tattoo and did not mar it.

Alice smiled widely and took my hand. "_Always_." She squeezed it three times. "Now, let's get you into that dress. Edward has been waiting for this day for forever..."

"And I have not?!" I asked in amusement. Alice just winked in lieu of a verbal response. She led me back inside to the room where my white dress hung. Today, I was getting married to my soul mate.

…

I stared at my reflection while Alice put the finishing touches on my hair. My brown locks were twisted up in the front while a cascade of curls traced down my lower back. When the last bobby pin was stuck in my stiff hair, I bent over to pull up the tool of my wedding dress. I needed to put on my heels.

"Jess, why on earth do you still have that ugly green stool? It doesn't match with the room's decor and it looks worn out." I felt momentarily disheartened as she dissed the wooden stool I placed my right foot on. I paused while strapping on my heel and reflected on her question. Why did I care to keep it? I found it abandoned on some stretch of road between our normal hunting grounds. I adopted it without a second thought.

_Every time I look at it..._I closed my eyes. I was searching for the answer in my head. What did I see or feel when I looked at it? Nothing came to my mind. If I tried to give it away, my dead heart would protest. That's much I knew. It was enough for me to keep it for now. It struck a chord in me somewhere. So, I kept it.

"It has its uses, Alice. Plus, I like its character. The chipping green paint and every dent means it's seen some things but it's still here. Like me." I smiled at my sister and she gave up as she rolled her eyes endearingly.

"Finish putting on your shoes; you're almost late," Alice remarked as she touched up her own appearance in the mirror. My sister was beautiful. I almost couldn't even tell we were sisters by appearances, if I didn't know it in my heart. I secretly wished we shared some physical feature that linked us to any onlookers. Like maybe a dimple or the same smile.

...

"Come back soon," Edward murmured into my ear before I abandoned him in bed. I was inclined to take a morning stroll on the beach while the sun was rising. We were on day two of our honeymoon on Isle Esme. If Edward had it his way, he would have accompanied me. And I of course would have enjoyed every second of it._ But_…he understood I valued my alone time.

My me time.

My Jess time.

So, he let me go alone for the walk by myself this morning unlike yesterday morning. It was also his placement of trust in me. He knew as well as I did that I could avoid caving into drinking human blood. I hadn't touched a drop since I turned, and I wasn't going to start of all times during our honeymoon.

As I drew closer to the beach front, my eyes poured over the ocean. The view was somehow…_familiar_. Not that I had been here before per say, but the landscape. OR maybe I was crazy. Who knows?

Some days, I feel like I am living in a bubble with rose colored glasses on. I don't know where this feeling stems from. I try to sweep it under the rug every time the ugly feeling rears its head in my mind. I look around myself and feel lucky with how my life has turned out. I have my mate and my sister. The rest of the Cullen's are my family as well- _of course_. My life _is perfect_. I don't even mind being a vampire. Despite this, I feel this gnawing like I have forgotten something or _someone_. Perhaps from my lost memories of who I was before. But Alice and Edward have filled in enough for me. I am sure what I have forgotten cannot be that important. Maybe living in the bubble with my rose-colored glasses on is the best path forward? I am happy. _Very_ happy. Why should I attempt to ruin it from a stupid feeling that is probably nothing?

I want to leave it alone. I mean...I have **forever** to live. I_ could_ change my mind. But likely not anytime soon. Forever is a long time and things change over time. For now, I'll keep my happiness and enjoy everything right in front of me.

_Jessica_.

I shook off the voice. Every now and then, it popped in my head. The voice could vary in who called the name. Sometimes they spoke the name Katie. I attributed it as being some glitch in my mind accepting I am a vampire now. My name is **Jess,** after all.

_**The End.**_

* * *

_AU Sequel to "5 Years" in _**"Jessica's Happily Ever After?"**

**[Jess Arc]**

"_The Vampire and the Wolf"_

* * *

[Main theme: Friendship; Hurt/comfort. Minor theme: Romance]

Eventual J&J pairing- FYI (_member, AU_)

* * *

"_Forever is a long, long time and time has a way of changing things." - The Fox and the Hound_

* * *

**Chapter 1**

"Love, I can go with you." I cringed at Edward's pet name for me. My face twisted in displeasure and I didn't have to speak on it before Edward admitted his folly. "Sorry Jess...it just slips off the tongue so naturally." His dazzling nature almost made me submit to let him call me whatever pleased him. _Almost_.

"Jess or nothing else," I insisted when I stuck my tongue out. Edward rolled his eyes at my childlike behavior. His century of experience over me often gave off some wave of superiority. He didn't notice though. I did. Most times it didn't bother me. Today it did. I just wanted some space. Being smothered in love from Alice, Edward and Esme constantly was enjoyable 99% of the time. This 1%, I just needed my space from everyone.

Edward sighed as he nodded. He was giving in to my request. I wanted to hunt alone. It wasn't my first time. But he always got antsy about it when we drew close to the Canadian and U.S. border. I falsely promised to not go within 20 miles of that dividing line. He was content and let me venture off with a soft smile. I loved him. Truly. _So_ much. Yet I couldn't help but feel it wasn't right for my world to revolve around him. Wasn't there supposed to be more to life than just this wonderful, passionate love we had for each other? And my family. I can't forget them. As vampires, we are supposed to keep to ourselves. But I wanted to venture into the human world. I suppose similar to Ariel from the Little Mermaid. I wasn't a hermit. We had tv. And I had all the time in the world to watch movies and tv shows galore. It's not like it could kill my brain cells.

I felt a smile break on my face as I broke free through the trees in front of us and began to put temporary miles of separation from my life with the Cullen's. Every now and then, my head peaked over my shoulder to verify Edward wasn't following me. I needed his trust. He knew this. I, however, was still weary that he couldn't let me be. I was all too happy to be proven wrong. There was a reason we were mates.

...

Fear isn't a feeling the dissipates when you become a vampire. It is amplified along with every other feeling you are capable of having. Fear was surging through my body as my feet could not carry me away fast enough from the abomination trailing me. Out of nowhere, it began chasing me five miles ago.

Its speed outmatched mine. Every passing second, I knew it was gaining on me. Closing in. I was going to be its lunch despite being a lethal predator myself. I wouldn't get to see Edward or Alice a final time before it killed me. The graceful movements vampires were well known for were not being displayed in my rapid motion of avoiding my attacker. I was clunky. Careless. As I let fear and the drive to survive push me forward. Could I really outrun it though? Would I stand a chance fighting? If I was going out as dog meat, I was going to give it hell. This wild beast would not have an easy victory over me.

My feet dug in the ground to decelerate my speed. Each crunch of my feet ripping through tree roots that were haphazard road blocks inspired my fight. I was here for this.

I let a fearsome growl bellow from my core as I locked eyes on my opponent. It's reddish brown fur basking in the sun was not what I expected for a damn wolf. But it was also a monstrous size. So, it not being brown or gray as expected should not have surprised me. It growled back at me as if I was its enemy even though I was doing my own thing before it began to hunt me. Minding my own god damn business. Not even feeding yet.

Before I plunged forward to initiate the fight, it bounded forward and pinned my body to the ground. Effortlessly. _Shit. No one has bothered to teach me to fight. What did I really expect to happen?_

The wolf looked into my eyes and...whined. No snarl. Snap. Growl. Or whatever ugly sound it would make. If I could even process hearing with that pungent smell radiating off its fur. It backed away from me as if it knew me. No longer radiating loathing, pure hatred or contempt from its eyes.

I was frozen in place. Maybe it was playing with its food? Toying with me? It seemed authentic but... I began to make my get away when its second whine echoing in the air stopped me. Why did I stop? I looked back at the 100 feet of distance I already put between us.

_Do you know me?_

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__If you have read any Sarah J Mass series, you know that the love interest isn't always who you first think. __This story was born from the original ending to Edward Arc in JHEA that has now been changed. This is a__n AU spin off from "5 years" because I really enjoyed writing the non-imprint relationship side between Jess/Jacob. In this story, I want to see where I can take it. For shits and giggles and all that jazz. _

_Leave a review or don't leave a review. This story I am so hyped to write, I don't need validation to continue and finish (it won't be a long Arc). I am writing it for my own reading enjoyment. Maybe you will enjoy it too? Idk __ \- Lalaland972_


	2. Chapter 2

**[Jess Arc]**

"_The Vampire and the Wolf"_

* * *

"_Goodbye may seem forever. Farewell is like the end. But in my heart's the memory, and there you'll always be." - The Fox and the Hound_

* * *

**Chapter 2**

My eyes did not release their disbelief over the fact I just witnessed the massive wolf in the distance CHANGE into a human. Like a wizard. I just finished the Harry Potter series...maybe Hogwarts was real? The threat level once maxed out in my body dissipated into the hint of a whisper. A _human_ was non-threatening. The wolf, threatening. Human, non-threatening. Why did it change? Also...my eyes popped out of their sockets…he was _naked_. I resisted my hands insistent drive to cover my eyes. I kept them by my sides while my gaze held on his face. Both of us remained deathly still. No sudden moves. This stranger must have wanted something from me. But what?

"**WHAT THE F**K, Jessica**?" The tan, massive man shouted at me as he stalked closer to where I was standing. I carefully stepped away on pace with his advance without ever removing my eyes off of his. His eyes were dark. The brown almost obscured into his iris. _But_ it was a shade lighter. Nonetheless, a raging storm was brewing in them. He was..._angry_. Why did he think I was this Jessica person? Do I correct him or run? I have the advantage while he is human. My eyes almost slipped to reassess his human form when I recalled he was still nude. Before I diverted my eyes back to his face, I took in his tan skin glistening in the sun. His muscles were large and defined. He was possibly bigger than Emmett...but his skin didn't sparkle like ours did. It was different, but still nice to look at. _Focus, Jess. _

"I am sorry, but you're confused. My name is Jess and not Jessica. I am not who you are looking for." My voice was calm. I didn't fear him anymore. In a flash, his eyes faded from anger to confusion.

"You look..._different_. **And reek**. But..._you are_ Jessica. What game are you trying to play?" He asked slowly. Resentment seeped from each word in his question. "Also," he quipped before I could respond, "Jess is short for Jessica, so **it ****IS**** you**." His words rolled off the tongue with a confidence I never had in knowing who I was.

I stood dumbfounded as his rage swiftly reappeared. "Look at you." He deliberately shook his head in anger… or possibly disappointment masked with his fury. "_All_ fine and dandy while everyone in Forks thinks you're dead." My eyes caught his forearm muscles twitching. His gaze upon me once a raging fire became an intense, cold stare without any warning. I flinched under the scrutiny of this stranger's eyes.

"You turned into one of _them_…" His spite was evident that by _them_ he meant vampires. "…and you just left us. You never came back. Not to even let me know you were actually still _existing._ I won't dare say you're alive because we both know you're not. You **don't** have a beating heart in that…" His eyes flicked below my neck. "…_chest_." The veins in his neck popped as he struggled to keep a lid on the volcano swirling inside of him. Why was I the cause of this imminent eruption? "Was Bella, right?" His shoulders slumped forward in defeat. His Adam's apple bobbed before he choked out, "**WAS SHE?** Did you want to turn? Is **this** what you wanted?"

I felt trapped in this moment despite pleading for time to pass quickly. I was free to go though, wasn't I? Why was I subjecting myself to his beratement of actions that were not my own?

A blank stare took form in my eyes as I desired to not waste anymore thoughts or emotions on this creature. He was the one who interrupted my time in the first place. I stole the confidence from the air he at first wanted to pin on me with this false identity. "You are confused. I am Jess. I don't know you..._sorry_."

A low growl released from his lips. At me. Or in response to what I said. He was frustrated upon realizing I was right.

_Jessica._

My knees fell forward to the ground as I slammed my hands over my ears. _**Stop it!**_Covering my ears wouldn't do anything. It was a false gesture in order to manifest my combat of that voice from within. _My name is Jess. Jess. Jess. Jess._

"Jessica?" This time the voice was external and hearing it made my stomach flutter instead of convulsing. It was _his_ voice and it didn't carry far. He was standing _too_ close to me now. I snarled to warn him from approaching closer.

"Stop it! My name **IS **Jess." I wrapped my arms around my torso. My body wouldn't stop shaking uncontrollably though. If I was smart, I would have hauled ass away from the _naked _shapeshifting man. Instead, with a sudden flick of my arms, I ripped off the lower half of my shirt. I tossed it to him for coverage. His eyes finally dropped to his exposed lower half of his body. I expected him to turn away in shame or to turn a shade of red to mark his embarrassment. Instead…a cocky grin sprawled across his face before he winked at me. "Like what you see, Jessica?"

I exhaled in protest. It was beneath myself to acknowledge his tasteless joke as he wrapped the orange cloth from my shirt around his waist. It barely did anything but was better than nothing. I snickered. Then it dawned on me that I was no longer subject to that dark place. When did my body stop shaking? Normally, I didn't return to a right mindset until after-

"You just going to ignore me?" My head seared with an unfamiliar touch as I found his hand resting upon my head. Heat? Warmth? Those were my first thoughts before I backed away from his touch. I was appalled he had the audacity to even touch me. My facial features let my internal sentiment be known. _Yet_…he just chuckled at me. Like I was funny. I rested my stare upon his eyes that swirled with emotions I could not place. When my ears focused on the lingering echo of his chuckle, hesitation was left in its dust. It was a tiny fraction of that confident chuckle, but it was present. I smiled upon the victory of my assessment.

The man playing me with his self-assurance of who I was, actually doubted it himself. He was slightly hesitant that maybe he did not have the right person. And he did in fact have the wrong person. I just needed to let him know it. The man tilted his head to the side as he assessed my recent shift in demeanor. I too felt the smugness I was now exuding.

"You know it as well as I do you have the wrong person. _My name_ is Jess. I am a vampire. We never would have run in the same circles before…_werewolf_."

I felt myself scrutinized by the man in front of me as his eyebrows shot up. "Actually, its shapeshifter." I felt myself bite back the hiss begging to be released. I would not succumb to his level.

"Wolf. Puppy. K-9. Fido. Werewolf. Pota_to_, toma_to_. Regardless, we are natural enemies." My voice clearly lacked enthusiasm as I made my assertion. It was _kinda_ bullshit. I wondered if he knew it too. It did seem like the natural order of things that super natural beings opposed each other though, right?

That _damn_ chuckle made an appearance again, this time pairing with a smirk that shook my core. His eyes were dancing in delight. Was he mocking me?

"_Normally_, yes…" My fingers flexed before they curled into fists. I had to channel my annoyance somewhere. Who did this man think he was? I felt my chest, despite myself, lean forward as my body wanted to pry more information out of him to reveal why he said those words in that way.

My silence prompted him to finish. "_But_ not us. You are an exception."

I examined his face. He was handsome. A different handsome then Edward. Edward's features were a delicate, refined type of beauty. This man's face…was rugged and distinct. His dark features should have drowned out his eyes. But they were what stood out most to me. "_Why_?" That one worded question escaped from my lips, so I could break my stare on his face.

Genuine sympathy flashed in the stranger's eyes as if it finally sunk in that I too was a stranger to him. "You really don't remember anything before you turned? Your family or..._me_?" He rose his left hand to his heart while dropping his right hand from the cloth already tied to his waist. When I focused on his left arm, I noticed a faint tan line where he once wore something somewhat permanently on his wrist.

I shook my head. _Did_ he know me before? Who was he to human me? A friend? Alice and Edward must have forgot to mention him to me. Probably because he wasn't a vampire as well. His veins coursed with blood as his heart beat strummed at a steady rhythm.

My forehead wrinkled as I did another assessment of the sun's placement in the sky above. It was beginning to lower. I had to move or risk Edward looking for me. I would never have alone time again if he learned of this close encounter. "Goodbye." I turned around to begin my head start back to my family.

"**Wait!**" I paused but didn't turn around to face the owner of the desperate voice. "Don't you want to know my name or who I am to you?" I reflected on his words before I shook my head once again.

"There is a reason they never mentioned you _after_...I became this. I am sorry. I trust them." _I remember **nothing** from my past. There has to be a reason for that, right? Maybe all my memories died when my heart stopped beating?_

I sprinted off in the distance before I could change my mind. He didn't follow me. But deep down, I wished he had.

* * *

_Lalaland972's Response to a review:_

_**Wpear:**__ First follow + First review!? Glad you wanna see this out with me! ^_^ Maybe he will bring out those memories!…things will spice up next chapter for her second encounter with him. Thank you for the review and compliment :)_


	3. Chapter 3

**[Jess Arc]**

"_The Vampire and the Wolf"_

* * *

"_We'll be friends forever, won't we? - The Fox and the Hound_

* * *

**Chapter 3**

I found myself stopping at the nearest stream I could find. Time wasn't on my side _but_...I could still smell the dog on me. And if I could smell it, you bet they would be able to as well. Then I would never be able to leave their sights again just because I had the rare misfortune to come across a _different_ mythical creature. I mean if we existed as vampires...it made sense there could be shapeshifting wolfs, mer people and Harry Potters in this world. Me stumbling upon them by my lonesome would be my family's concern. Then we would have to move, and I **HATED** moving. I wanted to plant roots somewhere for once.

I scrubbed every inch of my body with a pine cone I found while bathing myself in the stream. I was certain we didn't have skin cells to shed anymore after becoming undead...still this sci-fi movie I watched last week, GATTACA, inspired me to take no chances. When my entire body was "scrubbed" then dried off with the strongest scented leaves I could find, I found another obstacle to take on. I reached for my shirt on the bank of the stream and my eyes narrowed in disapproval. I ripped it...for that mongrel. Leaving me to explain what happened to this _nice_ shirt Alice bought me last month. _Ugh! Dammit. _

I withdrew my fist from the wreckage of the boulder I just cracked in half and sighed. I put the tattered shirt back on with the rest of my clothes before I continued my journey home.

Alice was the first one to intercept me before I could make a break to my room to change. Worry lines creased her forehead. Her short hair accentuated, and possibly emboldened, my drawn focus to her pouty frown. She was clearly unhappy. It was most likely that the frayed ends of my shirt sealed my fate for what she would say next to me. A nervous chill trickled my spine as a new and important thought appeared in the forefront of my mind. _Did she see me with that wolf?_

Alice's eyes raked my body as she looked for further damage based on the hints of danger the t-shirt showed signs of. A sigh of relief escaped her mouth before she pursed her lips.

She was channeling an inner calm once she closed her eyes. I knew this trick of hers all _too_ well because it was often I worked her up in a frenzy of worry. She was an _overprotective_ older sister.

"I couldn't **SEE** you." I knew what she meant, but she was being over dramatic. She couldn't see the future 100% of the time and it wasn't always right.

"Because I was hunting, _silly_. I didn't get back until just now." I was not commenting on the right form of "see" she was using for my own enjoyment.

"Don't pull that with me," Alice grumbled. Then her fingers trailed the tattered ends of my shirt that barely reached my mid drift. "Then there is this. Are you okay? What happened?"

Thinking on it...I never did feed, and that was the main purpose of my venture out alone. "Tough game today knocked me into a tree and the branches snagged the shirt. I just ripped the rest of it off rather than have half of it dangle off me. **Dang **moose," I reasoned all too casually.

"So, you didn't feed?" I painted on a disappointed face and Alice smiled at me with understanding. Alice's hand patted my shoulder for encouragement. Apparently after three years of being a vampire, my incompetence at hunting solo was still so easy for her to buy.

"Come on, let's get you fixed up before Edward gets anxious over your appearance. He always gets uneasy when you're off alone. You two are just about attached at the hips," she giggled. I stopped my neck from twitching on that cue. She was right. It was normal for us all to be this way with our mates, I supposed. You only get one mate as a vampire. One for life. Edward was mine and I was his.

_But_ it felt wrong. Not being a mate. Just, being _so final_. You only get one. I picked him to be mine as a human. I wondered if all humans were like that too? One person to be yours until the end? We had forever and they had a deadline with their finite existence. My thoughts began to blank as I looked at the sun as it was minutes away from setting in the sky.

_Warmth. Heat._

"Alice?" She was pulling me to the back of the house. I assumed the rest of them were in the front. They always had respect for our sister time at least. Even Edward.

"Yeah, Jess?" She responded before humming a soft melody that sounded familiar.

"Did I...have any friends I left behind as a human when I was turned?" Alice stopped and turned to face me. Her pensive gaze almost took on a guarded stance. Like she was keeping secrets from me.

"A few. But..._Jess_, like I said before, vampires keep to themselves. Their own kind. It's safer for us and others that way. If they found out our secret... it would put their lives in danger." A foreign emotion flashed in Alice's eyes that I could not place. Guilt? Burden? Shame? Probably none of those. That shapeshifter really f**ked with my head it seems.

"Oh, of course. Were any of them..." I carefully searched for my next word. I hoped to pull it delicately and not scare off a response from her. "Like a best friend to me?" Her eyes brightened as if I asked her the easiest question of all time. Like what color is the sky? Or what is 1+1?

"**Just me!**" She beamed and I basked in the warmth of my sister's smile. Of course. _Even if_ I did know that person from before, they were not close enough of a friend to me to keep in the loop of who I was now. But he did call me Jessica...Jess can be short for Jessica. But they said I have always been just, "Jess"?

I let my confusion drain from me as Alice began to prattle on her joy that we would move and start up a "normal" life in a real town. My family trusted me and I was _almost_ ready to assimilate to the life style of starting high school. It was...kind of exciting. I don't remember going to high school, so this would be like a "first time" for me. And I could make new friends! Well, actually no. That was another rule. We were just supposed to keep to ourselves. But still, I was excited for this next adventure. It was only June, and in two months I would get to be enrolled in my freshman year of high school!

...

I embarked on a solo trip once again for the rarity of a second day in a row, thanks to Alice's quick thinking. I wasn't going to squander it this time around. _Feed _and freedom. My only two goals.

As I was within the boundary of Edward's request to not get any closer to the border...I debated _getting closer_. I mean, why was that a rule? Did we Canadians just hate the US that much? Was it because I didn't have a passport? I allowed my body for the second day in a row to break the rules. The closer I got, the more persistent the question became of if we would cross each other's paths again. The reddish-brown wolf.

It wasn't long before I had my answer. This time, I wasn't prey. He ran alongside me despite being the one with superior speed. He kept pace with me, and I wondered why? He seemed non-threatening. He wasn't hunting with me. Was he escorting me?

I stopped questioning his presence and just focused on not hitting a tree.

At the border, I stopped. I couldn't betray Edward more than what I already had with my false promises of how far I would go. The wolf stopped as well and just stared at me with unfathomable curiosity. His eyes must have matched my own as we each had so many unspoken questions about why we were in front of each other.

Enemies. Normally.

But...not us.

He knew me? But he wasn't a good friend of mine from before. Maybe? Why were there so many gaps?

He tentatively stepped forward to me. Muzzle down. Almost, _submissive_? Something within me wanted to reach forward and assess the fuzziness of his beautiful fur coat. My body on whim instructed my hand to reach for the fur behind his left ear. Mid reach, I half expected him to recoil from my imminent touch. He did not though. My fingers ran through his course fur and I had never felt something _so soft _in my entire life.

_What am I doing?_ I jerked my hand back to my body and stepped back. I was playing with fire. Being stupid. I meant to ask Alice about other creatures of this world besides us before I left, but something inside me warned me not to. _Keep it a secret for now_, it whispered. Amongst my other, _tiny_, insignificant secrets.

I pulled off my shirt to reveal the tank top this time I came prepared wearing. _Just in case._ I ripped it down the middle with ease before I tossed it to him.

_Jumping down the rabbit hole now it seems. __Very__ Alice in Wonderland like._ I smiled at the thought of my own independent journey. He wasn't a human. I couldn't endanger him with Volturi rules. And he knew what I was. Maybe even if we weren't good friends from before, I could make a friend outside of my family? Who knew our secret. _Yes, that would be nice. _

I turned around as soon as his phasing started. To a human it may have unfolded in a second. But my sight as a vampire, every fraction of a second was absorbed by my brain and seen in my mind. I hadn't forgotten the nudity display from the last meet and greet that I wanted to skip this time.

"Friends again, are we?" His voice flattened me like a steamroller. That cockiness was something we would have to work on. Was it a common trait in his kind?

"Trial period. _But_… I have a condition." My lips clamped together to protest what my brain was insisting we say. It was for the better. "Leave the past in the past."

A dejected look sprawled on his face for barely a second before he was back on the playing it cool train. "Got a reason for that?"

_Yes? No? Maybe…? I don't know._

"Of course. Pass the trial run, and I'll tell you," I lied. He would surely forget the need to tell me what acquaintance he was to me formerly as we began over again. New. A fresh start.

"Deal." The confidence in his voice was present but his dark eyes...they surely reflected what mine were shouting to him as well in this _very_ moment. _Deception_. We were both lying to each other despite the grins. _Not a great start to our friendship, right?_

I drove my feet forward. When he stopped running with me, he stopped on the other side of the border. I crossed into the United States and extended my right hand forward. "Jess."

He smirked at my _formal_ introduction. Amusement flicked in his eyes before he commented, "Jess, is it? _Short for __Jessica_?" _Oh_, the snarkiness from this one… was different from anyone in my family. Yet, I enjoyed this attitude from him. It seemed…_fitting_.

I rolled my eyes in protest and stuck out my tongue. His mouth fell open. Was he shocked by my action? Edward didn't like it when I did that either. If I could have blushed in embarrassment, my cheeks would have burned I was sure.

"Just Jess. Short for nothing.** And **you are?"

The man stretched his hand behind his head to rub the back of his neck as he contemplated my question.

_Are names this complicated to speak on for his kind? Maybe he has some weird ancient name he is worried I cannot pronounce? Is he as old as Edward or Carlisle? Hey…how did he know human me? Did they not have rules as well for who they interact with? Can't believe I am just thinking about this now!_

He shook his head to reject whatever thought or name was presently on his mind. His ebony hair landed an inch above his eyes when his head stilled. _Why is his hair black but his wolf fur such a light and pretty color?_

He exhaled with a hint of exasperation as he brought his hand back down to reach into mine. "Jacob" he whispered as his touch once again baffled my senses. My always cool body was not use to this..._sensation_. It was opposite of what I knew. A bewildered expression reached his face as I had refused to let go of his hand yet. "Are you...do you...run at a high body temperature?"

A carefree laugh escaped his lips before he answered me. "Yes, I do." My lips curled into a smile as I was finally able to confirm the foreign faint feeling prickling my skin. Heat. Warmth. As expected of natural enemies. His dark, warm skin was a stark contrast from my pale, cool skin.

What a start to a beautiful friendship with…_Jacob_. My own, personal friend. Life was looking up for me.

* * *

_Lalaland972's Response for reviews:_

_Cool. Thanks for writing your thoughts guys!_

_**Wpear:**__ Yay thanks! __ I was on a writing high last night! Lol Jess has been a vamp for three years! Feel free to more ask questions in case I am not clarifying enough info for you during this story!_

_**DxGRAYxMAN:**__ I like to surprise lol Glad you may stick around depending how this goes lol _

_**angelacorus:**__ Super serious! I really loved J&Js friendship in Edward Arc and I felt gutted when I wrote Jacob's POV in that ending. Which inspired me for this 'what if' AU._

_**How dare you (guest**__): LOL nice. Wait and see if she does. Also, # teamJessica # redemptionforJess_


	4. Chapter 4

**[Jess Arc]**

"_The Vampire and the Wolf"_

* * *

"_If only the world wouldn't get in the way. If only people would just let you play. They say you're both being fools. You're breaking all the rules. They can't understand the magic of your wonderland." – The Fox and the Hound_

* * *

**Chapter 4**

I assessed Jacob's body. Where the source of warmth that I now could put a name to came from._ He_...had a body that would make any woman blush. A light brown skin tone that supported muscles that rippled and bulged in all the right places. His abs were defined, as if chiseled in place by a creator who was OCD about perfect lines, cuts and angles.

I shook my head for ogling a man who was not my mate. It wasn't cheating, but it didn't feel right. Edward was the most beautiful man I had ever seen with a beautiful soul to match. Despite that, his lean, pale frame just couldn't compare. And as soon as that thought popped in my brain, I branded it as vapid and vain and buried it immediately.

Jacob did look to have been around my age. I was forever frozen at 18. I couldn't help but wonder if he was under the same predicament of being a creature cursed with immortality as well, despite his beating heart that seemed to race when my eyes lingered on him for too long.

I sat on the grass beneath us and made myself comfortable. "_How_ old are you?"

"19." I brushed my fingers over each blade of grass in front of me. I found a blade that contained a ladybug.

"Will you live forever?" I asked him while I drew that blade of grass closer to my face.

I looked up when the ladybug took off and saw it soar past Jacob's grim face shaking his head to answer my question.

_So, we cannot be friends forever then..._

"Are there others like you?" I swirled my hands in the grass to search around for something else. Something sharp. And I had no idea why.

"Yes." Jacob squinted his eyes, letting a twinkle of mischief appear through his slits. He was deliberately watching my every move. I wasn't sure what he was looking for. As I myself was feeling around for this sharp object that seemed imperative I find. The ground wasn't safe.

"A lot?"

"Enough," he impassively replied with a casual shrug of his broad shoulders.

"_Well_...what do vampires and wolves do together for fun?" Jacob barked out a roaring laugh. I soon picked up on the joke. _Natural enemies. Duh. We don't "hang". But then why us? An exception. But why?_

"Nothing. We tend to stay away, if not fight each other. However..." he pondered his next words carefully. I found myself focused on his lips as I eagerly awaited for what they would follow up with. "What do _**you**_ want to do?"

"Go on an adventure!" I announced with a strong sense of enthusiasm. I waved my hands at the imaginary border line that marked it had already started.

"And what adventure would that be?" Jacob's eyes glowed and a handsome smile lifted his cheeks. No one had ever reacted that way in my family when I had said something along similar lines. I pretended they were in jest amongst them knowing their weary outlook on my control, but with Jacob I 100% meant it.

"_Oh_, I don't know. Explore new places. Meet new people. See what there is to live for. I am tired of being cooped up in that house so often!" I spilled secrets that I had kept locked in my heart for so long. I never wanted to seem ungrateful for the precautions my family took for me. It was nice to vent to someone other than the inner workings of my mind.

Jacob's eyebrows raised nearly to his hairline. Then, a subtle tick of his jaw occurred. He was...growing angry. But why?

"**Do they**-_ I mean_, you don't get to get out much I take it?" Jacob forced himself to keep a calm tone with the veins popping in his neck.

"No. I am still fairly new to this lifestyle, so I am under strict supervision to make sure I don't slip up." We both knew what I meant as the blood drained from Jacob's face. "**Oh!** I don't mean you. I would never do that! I have never had a drop of human blood, even once. Apparently, I _almost_ did when I first woke up as a vampire, but they stopped me before I could do anything." My word vomit over our vegetarian diet did not seem to please Jacob.

Jacob emitted a soft growl before punching the tree next to him. The wood splintered from the trunk as if it was always an object that could be easily broken. I winced. I could tell my vampire tendencies were making him upset. I felt a familiar shame creep up in me about what I was, as I bashfully apologized for my behavior and began to turn away from him.

"**No**! Jessica- I mean Jess! Please don't go. I- this is hard for me to take in. But I can deal with it. That punch was nothing. And a more preferable outlet than being forced to phase," Jacob admitted gruffly with sorrow reflecting in his dark brown eyes.

"You phase when you get angry?"

"Yes. I have much more control now than I did when I first started."

"When did you start phasing?"

"Over three years ago." I felt my body still. I would celebrate my third anniversary of becoming a vampire at the end of the summer. Was that just a coincidence?

"And you kept aging after you became a shapeshifter?"

"Yes."

"Why did you-" Jacob cut me off with a snort and diverted our conversation.

"Let's save the 21 questions for another time. Tell me about yourself and who you are."

...

"Jacob, I have to go," I whispered sadly while watching the sun in the sky show signs it would begin to set soon.

Jacob wet his lips with his tongue. "Now?" he asked with a strained voice.

"I have to feed before going back or they will get suspicious."

A dark laugh emitted from Jacob's throat.

"So, _they_ don't even know you came across me?" He asked with a dangerous edge of sounding spiteful or vicious.

"We're natural enemies. Of course not. That's what you said," I countered in my defense. I thought he would understand. Surely, he must be doing the same from his pack!

"Yeah, right," Jacob's tone was bitter. He was holding back what he wanted to truly say to me. _Is that normal among friends? We keep secrets from our families and each other? _

I sighed in defeat at the messy bind we were in. "Am I supposed to tell them?"

Panic flashed across Jacob's face as he shouted, "**Definitely not**." He ran his hand through his short ebony hair. I wondered to myself if it was as soft as his fur coat. "_Sorry_. You're right. We should keep our friendship a secret."

I smiled softly in agreement. "Can we... meet again?"

"_**Sure**_. When?"

"Three days. At high noon?" He nodded at me. "Do you live around here?"

"No. Taking a temporary residence before passing through. I came across a problem for my pack that I am working on."

"_Oh_." Sadness tinged my response as my eyes cast down back to the green grass. Besides not living forever, he wasn't sticking around here for long either. "Are they here with you? Your pack?"

"Just me. Sort of a benefit of being the Alpha."

"Alpha is the leader?"

"It is."

"Well I hope you solve your problem soon so you can return to you pack." I hoped Jacob didn't pick up on my sorrowful smile.

"Already sick of me?"

"**No!**" I proclaimed through a flustered voice. "I was just trying to say what I should as we try out this "friend" thing between our kinds."

"It is as easy as breathing for me."

"Why?"

"Because despite what you think, this friendship on my part isn't starting at ground zero." Jacob flashed a massive grin at me before ripping off my shirt from around his waist and phasing. He was off with a sprint on all fours and all that was left of him was the scent of a wolf. While that scent once flooded my senses and made me want to gag. _Now_...well now, I didn't mind it so much.

I tossed the shirt on the high branch of a tree nearby so it could be used for future meetups. It seemed like Jacob didn't have clothes on hand if I wanted to converse with him again as a human.

And I knew I would.

...

**AN:** The scene in the grass in the beginning of this chapter…think to Ch 9 of "But why am I Jessica?" Also, feel _so-so_ on this chapter. Updates may be slow as I figure out where this is going. I do plan for it to be a short story, but I still have to write enough for it to make sense to me (and you). – Lalaland972

_Lalaland972's Response for reviews:_

_**Wpear:**__ You are totally right. I think I was really vibing a sad/happy ending for one of the stories. I think…I will eventually post an alternate ending for Edward Arc that redoes ch7-9 and gives it a happier ending. But I will still keep the original. Glad you like their relationship so far. It is a little tricker to write as I try to gauge Jacob's side with his responses to her. I am still developing a back story for the last three years for him in my head. Also! Did you pick up on the 'kinda' hint to Ch9 in BWAIJ before I pointed it out in the AN? A bit of a memory seep without her realizing it. Thank you for the compliments on my writing. Always feel happy reading that : ) _

_**DxGRAYxManx:**__ Yes, til the end! : ) good quote! _


	5. Chapter 5

**[Jess Arc]**

"_The Vampire and the Wolf"_

* * *

"_-__He's a huntin' dog now._

_-You're right. And you're a fox._

_-Oh that won't make any difference. Copper's gonna be glad to see me._

_-Well, honey. Just don't get your hopes too high."_

– _The Fox and the Hound_

* * *

**Chapter 5**

"You've been happier lately." Alice sat down next to me as I had a fixed stare on the sun in the sky. We were both sitting on the wood bench in the backyard of the house. Our backyard was on par of what I imagine the garden of Eden would have looked like, by Esme's design, _and yet_ I still found the sun to be my favorite thing to gaze upon.

"Have I?" I asked amused. I felt a wistful grin touch my lips as I didn't break my eyes away from the bright orange ball capturing my attention.

"_Yes_." Alice patted her hand on my back, beckoning my attention to her. I turned to face Alice. Looking upon her didn't release my joy I had obtained from staring at the sun, but it was shift I still noticed. "It must because you're aware it's been officially decided."

I felt my twist in confusion to what Alice was implying I should already know. "We are moving in two weeks! We are signed up to go to school in Seguenay in Quebec! You'll finally get your first taste in assimilating with humans!" Alice clapped her hands together to add to the news she delivered in a cheery voice.

The joy I once felt evaporated in the air. I felt my smile strain to encourage Alice to think I was in agreement with her initial assessment: I was happy because of this. I felt the happiness within me slowly leak out and re-inflate with dread.

I _had _wanted this.

Before...I met Jacob.

How was I to tell him we were moving? He had become my _secret best friend_ over the last few weeks. I was constantly treading a thin line to keep our friendship a secret. I prevailed for weeks only to have it now uprooted because I was moving. _Would Alice believe me if I told her I wasn't ready? No... I have to figure something out. I can broach this topic when I see Jacob later today._

…

"You're late today," Jacob commented with his eyes closed while lying on the grass with all but my shirt wrapped around his waist. The sun was hitting him in all the right places. My eyes lingered on the fine lines of his muscles before my brain commanded my mouth to reply.

"I know! Alice is making it harder for me to get alone time lately..." I mumbled as I laid down next to him. I rested my head along his shoulder. His heat was something I missed in our long absences from one another. I felt Jacob's shoulder stiffen underneath my head.

"_Why_?" His question wrung the tune of concern more than curiosity to me. I slid my hand from my side to find Jacob's forearm and offered him a quick squeeze of comfort.

"Remember how I told you she can see the future? Well it's been _**really**_ spotty lately concerning me. It's almost like all the time I spend with you blacks out her visions pertaining to me. It makes her apprehensive when she doesn't know what's in store for me." It was true, but I also was stalling on telling the truth about us moving.

Jacob's body began to quiver, and I knew what to do. To ease his discomfort or misunderstanding. I slid my hand further down my body to entwine with his own. "Jake, it's okay. She is just overprotective. She won't take this time away from me."

"Can you just call me Jacob, _please_?" Jacob's uneasy voice warranted my hand to retract to my side and I moved my head off his shoulder to be supported by the grass.

"Hey, no it's nothing like that," Jacob whispered softly before he turned to his side to face me. I closed my eyes before he could see the hurt he caused in them. I felt a warmth spread over my cheeks as hand caressed my face. Coaxing me to open my eyes.

I slowly lifted my eyelids to meet Jacob's dark eyes and a sledge hammer wreaked havoc on my chest. I had no beating heart, but my chest felt like I was alive with breath and a heartbeat from the way he stared into my own eyes.

"You always preferred calling me Jacob, despite my insistence you call me Jake. You _also_ only wanted to be called Jessica." Jacob withdrew his hand from my cheeks by the time his admission was over. He knew what line he had crossed yet he had done it anyways. **Don't bring up the past.** I wanted to be mad and tell him off. But I couldn't...the past four weeks of our time spent together had made me wonder more about who he was to me. Do I really want to know?

"You know that's not something we are-"

Jacob cut me off. "It's time we do though. I can't keep playing this game with you, Jessica." Jacob's eyes were cold and distant, and I wanted to run away from them. The only time I had seen his eyes take form this way was when we first met.

"Why did you call me that?! **It's Jess!**" I insisted while pushing my hands to the grass and standing myself up.

"You know that's not the truth." Jacob stood up after me. He towered me and I almost felt powerless standing next to him. "I can't keep coddling you here. My time is running short. I need you to remember." Jacob's tone was clipped, and I wasn't going to put up with his treating me like I was a child. I was older than him! Before I could channel that state of being, I found myself yelling, "Remember what?!"

"Who you are."

"I know who I am!" I crossed my arms around my chest defiantly as I stared down an Alpha Shapeshifter.

"No, you don't. Otherwise you wouldn't be meeting me as often as you do. You feel it. You're missing things. Important things. **And** I am one of them." Jacob was putting on a display of machoness I wanted no part of. He couldn't control me like I was a part of his pack. We _were_ supposed to be friends.

"Why must you push this?!" I shoved Jacob in his chest and moved him a hair of an inch. He was unphased by my outburst.

"**Because it's not right!**" Jacob growled at me. "And it's driving me crazy not knowing the truth." Jacob grabbed my shoulders and lowered his line of sight to my eye level. He was looking for something in my eyes.

"What truth if you already know my past!?" I exclaimed in frustration. A wave of horror rippled through me. I had just admitted for the first time between us I _actually _believed he knew me before I turned.

"If this was your choice! Because last time we talked, the last thing you wanted to be was..." Jacob flailed his hand in front me, "**THIS!**"

"**I knew it**. _You hate me like this_." I felt my face twist in mortification over the realization Jacob was repulsed by what I was. I thought we saw more in each other than the monsters we were...

"No, I don't! It's just not what I wanted for you. You're dead. A living corpse!" Jacob shook my shoulders and I looked away from him in defeat. I could not change what I was. He didn't accept me after all it seemed.

Jacob finally admitted the truth that he had been holding in for so long and it stung. And because he hurt me, I selfishly decided to hurt him by lying.

"_I wanted this._ I _**begged **_Alice to change me. So, go Jacob. You got your answer. Your precious Jessica chose this life and forgot you in the process. Let's leave the past to die like the human part of me did. That's where our friendship was meant to end after all."

I didn't even bother to say goodbye before I blasted into the trees to put as much distance between me and my cold dead heart I threw on the ground at Jacob's feet.

...

**AN:** So, if you're mad I skipped too much in time, lemme know? Otherwise we keep plugging forward on this one. Don't worry, they will bounce back from the drama lol This took awhile to post... _**but**_ I think I know where it's going now though?


	6. Chapter 6

**[Jess Arc]**

"_The Vampire and the Wolf"_

* * *

"_Neither one of you sees your natural boundaries."_

– _The Fox and the Hound_

* * *

**Chapter 6**

Jacob was fast. I cursed as he cut off my path after I thought I put a mile of separation between us. My knees knocked together in retribution as I failed to attempt pivoting into a new direction. An annoyed grunt passed my lips before I commanded my legs to perform their duty to get me out of here. Jacob intercepted my path in my _every_ attempt to dodge him. While I understood avoiding him was fruitless, I was sending a _**clear **_message. I **DID NOT** want to talk. After one too many rounds of failed dodging, I huffed and climbed up a tree. By the end of the climb, my muscles felt fatigued. It was not a physical onset. It was…_an emotional one_. My feelings were stringing to every movement of my body and attempting to prohibit it from escaping Jacob's presence.

The highest branch on the tree was not enough distance for me in the end from the wolf who hated my kind. I didn't bother to look down despite my longing to know if Jacob gave up or was waiting on me. I kept my eyes focused on the endless sight of trees surrounding me in every direction. I knew where I was, _but I felt lost_.

"I can't lose you again." I clutched the trunk of the tree for stability as Jacob's words sprinted into my brain. Avoiding obstacles stacking against it; refusing to let their meaning set in. He said _again_.

_Why again?_

"You have _no idea_ what you're missing out on, Jessica. All the people you_ really _left behind. I understand the lie they have sold you from what you've told me. _**But **_don't expect me for a second to believe you begged Alice to change you when you can't remember your_ damn _past. That was a shotty attempt to hurt me." His voice was crisp and began to sharpen into a formidable blade. Ready to slice through my disillusions.

"I have been hurt worse..._by you_. You helped me get everything I wanted. Bella was my girlfriend but at the cost of losing you. Then we finally rekindle things and this shit f**king happens! You were one of my best friends. You were so different than anyone I ever knew. You _**cared**_ so much, and you had so much you wanted to see and do. Your ambition was slightly frightening, but I knew my in with you is that I pushed you to really live your life. To take chances." I forced my body to sit on the branch beneath my feet. My legs were too unsteady to guarantee I wouldn't be sent flying over the edge.

"I am not going to force this on you. You will either remember, or you will ask me to fill you in on what you're missing, Jessica. I have to get back to my pack soon...not without trying to make you remember. I have selfishly overstayed my time because being with you, even this new you, was what I needed after all these years when I thought I lost you. _Failed you_. Remember, Jessica. That's all I ask. For me. _**For your family**_." Jacob's voice sounded strangled and its underlying message pleaded that I take his words at face value.

I was in a dream like trance as I climbed back down the tree to face Jacob. He was fully nude, but for once it didn't bother me. I ripped the bottom half of my shirt off for him. Jacob's eyes burned a hole through my heart as he took my shirt and wrapped it around his waist without ever breaking his gaze upon me.

Of everything he told me, I asked the least important question that for some reason unsettled me the most not knowing.

"You_ have_ a girlfriend?" My voice faltered in not sounding pathetic. _Why do I care?_

"Had." I gulped and felt my hands fidget by my sides. Relief spread through me and I couldn't fathom why.

I licked my lips and followed up with a pointless question that was prompting more background from him. "_Had?_" Jacob released a heavy sigh that carried the tune of annoyance before clenching his jaw. My eyes absorbed every muscle ticking and flinching in distress throughout his body.

"You know, I had a crush on you." My chest swelled with confusion by his deflection. I should have stopped prying at this point, but curiosity got the better of me.

I snorted to sound indifferent. "You did not."

"Don't flatter yourself. It wasn't big. _Tiny_. But still something." A cocky air exuded from Jacob. He must have had all the girls in the world wanting to date him before and now….

"You never acted on it?" I wanted to see how far he would draw out this game.

"No."

"Why not?"

"I liked Bella more." _I can only presume that was the "Ex" he was with before._

"_Oh_." My tongue was flailing around in my mouth. It wanted to break free and ask more questions. I kept it locked in prison. Jacob took a confident step towards me and cupped my right cheek with his hand. His warm touch was the trigger to my tongues jail break.

"So, you're not still with her? Bella?" It was a redundant question, but I wanted everything to be clear. I needed to know.

A pinched, unhappy expression marred Jacob's beautiful face. His expression conveyed his words to follow would be straightforward. "No, we broke up a while ago."

"Why?" I felt a mix of unsettling emotions stir within me as I resisted from stepping forward to Jacob and…offering him a comforting touch. Of some kind.

"We didn't see eye to eye on _something_ big."

"That big?"

"That big," he repeated to me with the assurance of a man who had no doubts over what happened. But I still felt a need to verify it.

"You regret it?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because it led me to where I am today."

"And where is that?"

"Right here. With you. My _A-game_ Jessica." My head began to spin, and my body wanted to drift to the ground. Jacob's words were ammunition to take down the wall between fantasy and reality. I had a hint it was there, but I ignored it because I was happy with Edward, Alice and the rest of my family. I didn't understand how stifled I felt in who I could be until I started spending time with Jacob.

I folded my arms over my stomach and bent slightly forward, not ready to submit to Jacob's verbal assault. _Yet._

"Give me more," I said in a quiet voice. Jacob's warm touch flitted around my back in aimless circles. I didn't want his physical comfort. I wanted his words _or _my memories.

"_More_?" Jacob's voice was cautious in attempting to understand what I needed from him. I gripped my stomach tighter to hold myself together while my body began to rock slightly. Something was being cut up. Stitches were coming undone and I felt like I was shattering.

"Why…" I began to croak out before falling to the ground. Jacob's arms caught me before I dropped to the grass. He gently set me on the ground and my chest tightened. I focused on that and not the fact I was falling apart and couldn't understand the underlying reason.

"A-game Jessica?" I finished my question barely above a whisper. Jacob smirked but his eyes were clouded with concern. He drew my head to his lap and began to smooth my hair with his hands. The repeated patterns of his soothing warm touch offered a calming effect. I felt my pieces freeze from their ever-evolving crumbling into dust that would blow away with the next gust of wind.

"It was a snide remark at first. Then evolved into an endearing nickname of your constant support in my endeavor to win over Bella. _After you…_" Jacob's dark eyes attempted to mask pain, but it was there. Poignant and asking for me to take notice and to not be fooled. I swallowed before slightly bobbing my head to see what would come next. He was allowing me to steer what I wanted to know without added pressure of just telling me.

"After you were gone, I realized it was because _**you **_should have been my first choice. _Not Bella_." Jacob offered me a careful smile that fueled my anxiety after he spilled a secret that should have been kept a secret. I shot up out of Jacob's lap and put as much distance as I could between us in half a second. My brain began to scramble for a logical excuse of why Jacob would bring this up. I was with Edward. He knew this.

"_Why would you say that_?" I hissed at Jacob as he remained sitting on the ground. Exactly as I left him.

"You broke up with him before you went _missing_." Jacob followed up with a deliberate, angry shaking of his head. My mouth went dry as I processed Jacob's words and actions. I wanted to beg him to stop. He was pushing me too far now. "In our last interaction, you had just returned from going A-wall for a few days over the shock over dumping Edward. But you seemed accepting of it and said you wanted to step out of the super natural world. This was **TWO DAYS** before you went missing. Tell me that doesn't sounds_** fishy, **__Jessica_."

"_Edward and I are mates_," I insisted in a shaky voice streaking with self-preservation and loyalty.

"Are you married, Jessica? I never see you wear a ring." I bent my neck down as that _one _deep, dark secret of my own rushed to my mind.

* * *

_Jess-_

_Your marriage certificate isn't valid because they didn't use your real name. I won't say more. If you ever want to talk, come find me. Otherwise, keep up your bliss with the Cullen's._

_-Rosalie_

_P.s. Burn after reading. I don't know if Alice will see this and I am trying to cover my thoughts from Edward._

* * *

I assumed it was a cruel joke in the beginning given the fallout Rosalie had with my family. I had burnt it after reading and never told anyone in my family about it. _Not even Edward._

But my time spent with Jacob made me question if there was truth to it.

"_No, I am not…_" Just four worlds, but I stumbled over admitting them and what that meant. A relieved smile began to spread on Jacob's face.

"I can show you Forks. It's where you grew up. Maybe something can trigger your memories for you…"

"**Jake, no! **I have my family here. As vampires, we only get one mate!" I insisted in a desperation that made no logical sense to me.

"_Says who?_" Jacob's questioning tone pulsed dread in my chest. I didn't have a good retort besides what I knew from my family.

"Is it not the same for wolves?" Jacob darted his gaze away from me for once and guilt etched his handsome face. "**You do!?**" I shouted in triumph. Then the implication of my words sunk in and I stumbled back into a tree behind me.

"It can happen," Jacob reluctantly admitted. "It hasn't for me, and it will never!" Jacob snapped and re-fixed his gaze on me with an emboldened confidence.

"We all get one! That's it!"

"**Says who?!**" Jacob roared.

"Says me! We get one family and one mate!"

"You _**f**king **_left your family behind with this life. Your mom, dad _and _Daniel!" My nostrils flared while my body began to wrack with confusion. "If you want just one mate, fine!" Jacob snarled in contempt with dark, vulnerable eyes. "But your family deserves better, _Jessica Stanley_."

My body collapsed to the ground.

* * *

**AN:** Okay, I don't know why but it's a struggle to get to the ending I want for this story. Nothing I write seems to flow like it did my first few chapters. I struggle with what makes the most sense to me. So, just going to do my best here. I feel like if I really f**k it up, y'all will make note of it in a review maybe? Otherwise I will just keep on! I strive to make my stories realistic in the "fantasy fanfic" world sense lol

_LalaLand972's response to review:_

_**WPear:**__ Yay I am happy you were excited for the last post ^_^ I was unsure of where I was leaning with this story, but decided I am going to get Jessica to remember. I don't know how much. But I can't figure out what is going to make the big connection for her *_* I will figure it out eventually though! P.s. The Phoenix will be updated by end of the month. It is a big chapter, so I__** actually**__ enlisted a BETA for it :O lol_


	7. Chapter 7

**[Jess Arc]**

"_The Vampire and the Wolf"_

* * *

_"We met, it seems, such a short time ago_  
_You looked at me, needing me so_  
_Yet from your sadness_  
_Our happiness grew."_

_– The Fox and the Hound_

* * *

**Chapter 7**

My eyes took in the ominous sky above me as I hit the ground with a large thud. Grey clouds were beginning to take siege in the upper atmosphere.

I didn't understand what Jake was talking about. Mom, dad and Daniel? My mom and dad were dead. Who was Daniel? Who were the people he was mentioning?

I wanted to accuse Jake of trying to trick me. Inform him I saw through his bull crap and knew he was my enemy after all, only trying to trick me.

But after all the time we spent together, I felt like that was impossible. He wouldn't do that. He was right. We were not enemies. I had even dared to call us best friends as of late. He knew all of me. Including the me I had to hide from my family

I reflected on Jake's careful enunciation of the name Daniel. I wanted it to stir up something. Dust off memories in the far reaches of my mind.

They all sounded like important people. I just didn't remember them though.

"Jessica, open your eyes," Jake sneered. His unsympathetic command rubbed me the wrong way, but I obliged anyways.

I found myself staring at a picture when my eyes snapped open. A picture of Jake and myself. My skin had more color to it. A peachy color versus the luminescent pasty white skin I rocked now as a vampire. Jake's massive arm was wrapped around my shoulders. I was wearing a black graduation gown and cap. My hair was shorter, just stopping above my chest. It looked unruly and wild. Opposite of my polished hair style now that came with the vampire beautification process. My smile stretched across my face and my eyes were...a _vivid_ blue. Unlike the gold eyes I would gaze at in the mirror at home. I looked happy. And Jake looked happy too with a white button up and black slacks. We looked like friends. Real friends. He hadn't been lying to me.

"Do you remember?" Jake asked. His voice reverberated between rage and frustration. I shook my head. The image looked real. A captured moment in time that triggered nothing for me. I felt a sense of unease slither inside of me while looking upon it.

"I...uh..." I was at a loss for words. I didn't understand who Jake was to me before becoming a vampire.

Before I could process the first image, another was shoved in my face. I was in it again, with that graduation gown on, pinned between three strangers this time. An older man and woman, and a young boy.

I squinted and outlined their facial features with my eyes, trying to locate them somewhere in my memories. I wanted to remember them. I looked just as happy with them as I had in the previous picture I saw before with Jake.

"Jake, where the hell did you get these?" My question was an attempt to stall Jake's rash behavior of bullying me into remembering.

Jake's dirt covered fingers directed me to the hole in the near distance. Next to the disturbed soil and grass was an ajar cigar box. I strolled on over to it and became disappointed when no more pictures were contained within the box.

"You buried this here?"

"After I found you, I went back to retrieve them."

"From where?"

"Somewhere else."

"Where, Jake? Another hole in the ground?" I knew his secret he was avoiding talking about. "How long have you been searching in these woods for me?" I asked with an accusing tone.

"Months. Maybe a year? But not always in Canada. I went a lot of places to search for you, Jessica." His voice was too light and casual for such an important topic. The one he desired to have with me since our first meeting.

"_Why?_"

"I spent three years trying to find you. THREE YEARS. They told me to give up. I probably should have. But something told me you wouldn't give up on me, so I didn't want to give up on you. The last year I went rogue and left the pack to find you. I was at the point where I just wanted to find a _**damn**_ Cullen to explain what the hell happened." Jake lowered his hands to his waist and began to wipe his hands off from the dirt they were caked in.

"Finding you was almost worst because you didn't even remember me, Jessica. Don't you get it? You forgot everything- no, you forgot everyone that mattered to you. You forgot us and you don't even care. You're complacent in this bullshit narrative they have set up for you."

His words seeped through the surface of my impenetrable skin.

_Staying away from you would never be by choice, unless that is what you wanted. _

I gripped my chest. _When had I said that? Who had I said that to?_

Jake was walking away from me. He was giving up. The sun broke through the clouds and began to shine a single beam of light on his path away from me.

Something was clicking into place.

* * *

"_Jess, why do you stare at the sun so often?"_

"_It reminds me of something or someone"_

* * *

_Maybe in this moment he is my sun after all_.

* * *

_As long as the sun rises and sets, I will keep living each day until my last breath._

* * *

"_We will be in touch soon, bye Jake."_

* * *

**He was my sun. **

"**JACOB**!" I called after him in a shrill, panicky voice.

Jacob stopped but didn't turn around.

"How can you stand being around me when I am all pale and cold and dead?" Jacob spun around and his eyes brimmed with excitement.

"Someone once told me it's what is on the inside that counts."

"She sounds smart," I choked out before Jacob was standing right in front of me.

His hands gripped my cheeks and he lowered his face to meet my own. "Are you...do you remember?" Jacob's words were cautious, and I understood why.

"Pieces. Fragments are hitting me, Jacob. What...what happened? Why am I a vampire? I was supposed to die." Jacob lowered his hands from my face and balled his hands into fists at his side.

"_Die?_ What are you talking about, Jessica?"

Piece by piece the illusion was being chipped away. My faith in my family crumbled away with my grip on reality.

"The Volturi were coming. I was on borrowed time, and I was going to be executed by them since I knew about vampires. I had accepted that was my fate, but I am this now." The ramifications of this realization were finally sinking in.

My body began to writhe in pain as my brain began to rewire itself. Making connections I had long forgotten even existed in me.

An agonizing scream fled my lips as the memories resurfaced in me.

_**It was stolen from me.**_ _My time remaining with my friends and family. Going to heaven or an afterlife. My soul is now chained to this immortal body and the earth until the end of time._

Panic ricocheted through me. I began to turn around in a frenzy looking for an escape from the hell I found myself exposed in.

"Jessica!" Jake pleaded to me over and over, failing to calm me down.

"**WHY THE HELL AM I A VAMPIRE? Why?! I chose my fate!**" Fury snapped my soul in half as I became engulfed in rage, confusion and regret.

I took off speeding like a f**king demon out of hell to the first thing that popped into my mind

Forks, Washington.

Home.

* * *

**AN:** Okay, a month later but…this chapter was hard to figure out because I kept going back and forth on how her memories would come back. **_SO_**, there ya go. It is short and a cliffy too *_* Til next time! I think we got 2 or 3 more chapters to go in this short story. gettin there! - Lalaland972

_LalaLand972's response to reviews:_

_**WPear:**__ It has finally kicked off! The moment you have been waiting for has arrived :D Yay! Hope you liked it! Thanks for the lovely review!_

_**SuzyQBeats:**__ Thanks for reminding me I needed to get back to this and figure it out! Sometimes you need a push when you're stuck! Hope you enjoyed!_


	8. Chapter 8

**[Jess Arc]**

"_The Vampire and the Wolf"_

* * *

_"No quote because my gosh the movie doesn't have too many quotable lines at a certain point. Guess I should have made this short story have less chapters." _

_-Lalaland972_

* * *

**Chapter 8**

My feet blazed a trail in the soil while a rain of ash and fire descended on my world. Rage bubbled in my chest, festering as I pumped my arms to keep pace with my feet. Jacob was following me. For once, he couldn't catch me. We both knew it. For some reason, my fury triggered my untapped potential to run my body at a speed I had never built up to before.

What overtopped my anger was the longing to see them. My family. Mom. Dad. Daniel. I was starting to remember their faces without thinking back on that graduation picture. I could hear their voices. They were calling to me. Asking me to come home.

My mind traced my last images of them I could resurface. All semblance of them being rebuilt in my memory allowed me to remember one important aspect I had neglected to confront.

I dug my heels on the ground to break.

They were human.

I was not.

The earth that crumbled beneath my feet to stop my motion forward was nothing compared to how my own world was devolving until nothing.

My knees buckled to the disturbed ground beneath me and I raked my fingers through my hair.

I had accepted my life after I changed into a vampire when my past was a mystery to me. I had Edward and the rest of the Cullens. I was a vampire with a promise of forever with those that I loved.

It was an illusion.

Built on lies.

Why would they lie? Why would Alice pretend to be my sister? I was Jessica Stanley. What sick, cruel and twisted game they played with me because I chose to die versus become a vampire.

They stole my remaining time with _my family_. They stole _my choice_. I couldn't even bare to bring myself to return to my family anymore. I could potentially entwine them into the same fate I ended up with.

Die or become a vampire.

"I can't entangle them in my world," I whispered to Jacob. I sensed his presence in the distance behind me. He phased at some point after he caught up to me. He was allowing me space to process before he approached.

I turned around while still on my knees.

"Jacob," I croaked while tilting my head up to meet his face. "Please kill me. I can't do this. It was supposed to be my fate anyways."

"_**What**_?" Jacob asked in a sharp tone as his posture straightened, his muscles visibly tightening on his nude body.

I braced my hands on the ground before pushing myself up to match his strong presence. "I made my choice. I didn't want this life. Edward and the rest of the Cullen's won't do it. I can't go back to my family. I won't risk dooming them like when I was pulled into this world. You told me I was registered as dead in Forks. I am just asking you to make that the truth now. _**Please**_."

Jacob's dark eyes were so clear and unflinching that it caused me to take a step back from him.

"I spent years looking for you and you just want to die?!"

"You got your answer, Jacob! I didn't want this!"

"Who turned you?" Jacob's dark tone unnerved me. Its hidden agenda was to seek revenge. I wasn't going to let him be disillusioned into thinking I needed that from him.

"I am your natural enemy! Reduce that in this world by one!" I demanded while I shoved my hands into his bare chest. We were on an equal playing field as his hands snatched my wrists as I began to pull them away.

"I am not killing you, Jessica! We can figure this out!"

"My god Jacob, there is nothing to figure out. You cannot reverse this. What am I supposed to do? Go back to _them_ and act like I don't know? Go back to Forks where people and my FAMILY think I am dead. I have no options aside from wondering this world alone. And god I don't want to do that. I don't want to be alone forever, Jake! I wanted to see my family in heaven or whatever afterlife there is. I don't know if I get that anymore because Edward always droned on about how vampires don't have souls. So just let me fade into the f**king black. Spread my burnt ashes into the earth and let the world move on. It will still turn on its axis without me here, Jacob. Please. If you are my friend. Please do this for me. Or take me back to your pack and let one of them do it for you."

I tried to step back, but with a sudden abrupt pull, Jacob brought me into his chest. "_Never_. You don't get to die! I don't care how you feel right now. Who gives a shit if you're a vampire now?" Jacob raised his large hands from behind my back and brought them to engulf my cheeks. I darted my eyes away from his penetrating gaze, but his plea for me to look at him convinced my eyes to give in to his wishes.

"I was wrong. _So wrong_, Jessica. You're not dead. You are alive. I have seen that over the weeks and you're every bit the girl I remember. At your core, you're Jessica. Your heart doesn't beat; but mine can beat for us both. Your eyes are gold; you keep alive off of animal's blood. You still have big dreams and long for adventure; that doesn't matter if you are a human or vampire."

My eyes were locked on Jacob's. I was hooked. I was reading the truth in his words as he spoke.

"We _will_ figure out a way for you to be with your family again and not endanger them. I won't let you give up. I found you. I _finally_ found you, and I don't want to let you go."

My throat ached as a raw, unrecognizable vulnerable voice responded to Jacob. "What are you saying, Jacob?"

"Jessica, I chose wrong when I had a choice. I was blind to what you meant to me until it was too late. Or so I thought. We shouldn't have been anyone's second choice. We should have been each other's first choice."

"The odds are stacked against us." Jacob offered me a weird look that indicated what I said had went over his head.

"Says who?"

"You could imprint," I countered in a hushed voice.

"And you said vampires only get one mate." I swallowed the lump rising in my throat as I grasped what Jacob was insinuating.

Recalling my Jessica memories and the humanity I once had, a philosophy I once shared resurfaced. A deep-rooted, core belief that someone didn't just get one great love in a lifetime. People were capable of many loves if their heart was open to it. Was my heart open to Jacob? How did I feel about him? And Edward...?

"What do you suggest?" Jacob's dark eyes glinted with hope when I finished speaking.

"We go to La Push first. I need to give the pack a heads up."

"Jake," I twisted my hands together in regret in what I had to remind him of. "If I stay around Forks or La Push, your people will be triggered to phase still. Vampire proximity ignites the dormant shapeshifting genes, right?" Surprise and then disappointment carved into Jacob's strong, chiseled face as my truths were sinking in for him. I myself felt surprised in wondering where I pulled that tidbit of wolf knowledge from. I hadn't remembered Edward or Jacob sharing it with me.

"F**k," he cursed while kicking a stone on the ground across an unfathomable distance.

"There is no winning. I won't put your people through that. Not when the Cullen's are gone as well."

"No. We are going. It can be a temporary stop while we figure this out. But we should-" Jacob cut himself off with emitting a powerful growl that reverberated the trees and ground around us.

My skin began to tingle with discomfort while I combatted the dizziness beginning to overtake my senses with _their_ arrival.

I wanted to be furious and see the world in red before my eyes landed upon _them_, _him_ and _her_.

"_Jess…_" Alice's melodic voice sounded broken and higher pitched.

When my eyes landed on her face, my heart tore like a piece of paper. Edward, Jasper, Carlisle, and Esme were faded out blurs with my vision concentrated on her. I knew if I looked over my shoulder at Jacob, he would have been a faded image too as I looked at the woman who betrayed me and pretended to be my sister for her sick enjoyment.

* * *

**AN:** Almost at the end of this ride, peeps! 1. Jess only remembers some parts of Jessica's past and not anything of Katie's. Either forever or just for now. To be determined. And… 2. If I go this route, this should be clued in by the end, but Jessica remembers some/most that happened in prequels but not the Katie drive of why she did things. I will work on figuring that out later. So, there ya go! Hope you've been enjoying this little short story. I certainly have been. To be honest, it is nice not being on a rigorous updating schedule and writing how I want to write it without worry about what the readers will or will not like.

_LalaLand972's response to reviews:_

_**WPear:**__ More is here! I wasn't sure where I was going but thought more on your review and was like sure, let's have Alice catch up to them with the distance she got from Jacob! It was either that or Jessica confronts them on her own. I like it better this way though! _


	9. Chapter 9

**Okay if you're following this I am assuming you have read "Jessica's Happily Ever After". ****BIG NEWS****. I am re-doing the ending of Edward Arc, Chapter 9. It will be a lot different. But for continuity of this story line, I am moving that Ch9 original ending to Ch1 of this story as like a preface/set-up. So…stay tuned if you are into reading a new ending for Edward Arc in JHEA. Or not, no biggie. K, enjoy now!**

* * *

**[Jess Arc]**

"_The Vampire and the Wolf"_

**Chapter 9**

* * *

My world was flipped upside down. They weren't my family. As they had me believe for the last few years.

An unfamiliar energy sparked and crackled on our opposing sides. It was built on the contrasting forces of my contempt and their desperation.

I ground my teeth together to concentrate on the present moment and stay with it. When that failed, I bit my tongue. The pain was inconsequential compared to the rest of the internal damage I was currently navigating.

Red began to cloud my vision. We were supposed to be a family. I felt it with Alice. Like she was _**my **_sister. My _**real**_ sister. And I believed Edward.

I resisted from clenching my eyes shut and spiraling into a pit of despair.

"Alice," I growled. My spine stiffened as the rage flooded through me. Consuming me. I desired to verbally tear her down. Rip her into shreds. Because _I knew_ my words could hurt her more than I could ever harm her physically. And her death would be too merciful.

Underneath the mask of my anger, I tried to deny to my audience and myself how deeply vulnerable and exposed I was in front of them. I hated them. Hated. Even Edward.

Out of the corner of my left eye, I caught Jacob's advancement forward. I stuck out my arm, thwarting him for moving any further. This was not his fight, and I knew he sensed that when he backed away from my touch.

"_**Why?**_" I cried, deliberately focusing my gaze on Alice. Her pained stare meant nothing to me for once. I was indifferent towards her feelings. Right now, this was about me. Figuring out why the hell she did it and they **all** lied to me.

I raised up my left wrist and rotated my scar towards her line of sight. I moved with lightning speed to be standing in front of her and shoved my wrist in her face. I repeated my question with more urgency. I prevented her shoulders from curling over by jutting my hands to force her back up. She continued to remain silent in not answering my question. The tears rolling down her cheeks didn't deter me from unleashing my fury. No one else moved towards us. They knew this quarrel was between "sisters".

"_Always_ wasn't meant for you," I spat out in malice while she refused to meet my eyes. "It was meant for _**my family **_that you stole from me. Why would you do that, why?" I grabbed her shoulders and began to shake her petite frame in a furious passion.

No longer willing to ignore Edward's presence, I released my tight grip on Alice and directed my body to face him before I unleashed my next level of wrath reserved for my _mate_. "And Edward, you just went along with it? You never tried to make me remember?" My voice faded as weakness overtook me. I loved Edward. I always joked he was my "better half" or I didn't know what I did to deserve him. A distraught look rippled across the beautiful features on his face and I was torn, hesitant on what I had intended on saying next.

I wrinkled my face in concentration before looking over behind my shoulder at Jake. His broad tall and tan stature hadn't budged since I first stopped him from approaching the Cullen's, and I was reminded what it was like when someone respected your choice. His dark eyes flickered in understanding when they caught my gaze, but his impassive mask still held for our audience. For me. Because he knew this was my fight and I needed to do this my way.

At the end of the day, that was all I wanted. A choice they ripped away from me that I had already made.

"I chose you. I loved you. You knew what I wanted. And after it was taken away from me, you hid it. I knew something was off or wrong, but I never questioned you. Because we were mates. Your betrayal is almost the same as Alice's. I can at least understand why you did it. _But not you._" I turned my body to face Alice again. "You never really liked me. You wanted him to be with Bella. She was your best friend. Then the Volturi are in the picture and you want me to be a vampire so I stay with Edward? You knew what I wanted!" I fell to my knees and was tired of denying the tears threatening to fall. "_**Why**_? What am I missing?"

I wanted the fury to drive me. I wanted to fight with them. Maybe it was a case of Stockholm syndrome, but I couldn't wish to tear them apart. Make them hurt as bad physically as I was hurting emotionally. Esme, Carlisle and Jasper were guilty parties as well by being willing participants. However, it was Edward and Alice I felt the worse sting of betrayal from. I just wanted answers but they were giving me nothing.

An eternity of silence seemed to pass as I scanned each of their faces looking for the answer they were not speaking on. Guilt was smeared over each one. I punched the ground beneath me before a violent scream emanated from my lungs.

"**One of you f**king say something before I explode! Give me some god damn answers!**"

Edward's stoic face looked over at Alice before his gaze was refocused on me. But Alice beat him to the punch.

"I couldn't let go of the future I saw for you and Edward. You both looked so happy. I just wanted it to come true. I didn't know you would forget your past. I thought maybe it was better that you didn't remember so you could be as happy as you were as a vampire. I am the one that convinced everyone to go with it. Be mad at me, Jess, and not them." Alice's play at being a martyr was infuriating. And they just let her do it.

I recalled brief flashes of sisterly moments with Alice. Each memory was another dagger driven into my back.

My throat constricted as a sob rose up. I shoved it back down with a vengeance.

"Don't call me, Jess!" I snapped. "It's Jessica." An inability to forgive this betrayal was igniting within me. Every passing second was adding more gasoline to the fire.

I felt nauseous but I fought through it as I shook my head at Edward in disgust. "Edward, say something! Don't let Alice take this fall for this. You're just as guilty." Alice and Edward exchanged a quick glance. Human me would have missed it.

"No, it was all me. _I'm sorry._ I don't know how much I can say that. I just wanted you to be a part of my family. You're like a sister to me. I didn't want to lose you when there was an easy solution to save you." I held no sympathy towards her. No compassion or understanding of her actions. My lips flattened together in irritation as I also recognized that she was deflecting the guilt from Edward. But I was somewhat okay with focusing my anger solely on her. The culprit of why my change ever even occurred.

"You knew what I believed in! After death there is an afterlife. That's where you reunite with those who die. My family will die, and I will remain here living and never see them again. Not Daniel, my mom or dad! This wasn't your choice to make. You had no right to steal that away from me." I felt pressure release on my chest as I took a few steps back from Alice and the rest of the Cullen's.

"I know this now. I am sorry, Jessica. _I truly am._" Her broken voice. The dejection in her gold eyes. I knew this life event would cause irrevocable damage to her and that would be my only relief upon my departure. That I wouldn't be the only one to suffer as well in the aftermath.

"Edward! Say something. I can't stand your face switching between a statue or gaping fish. Give me your reason or justification. Tell me something. Anything!" After my harsh voice rolled off the tongue, Edward wrinkled his nose before narrowing his eyes. He was in a foul mood. It was rare, but it happened on rare occasions. I was minorly elated for once he was reacting to this fucking mess.

"_Well_, Jessica, _maybe_ you're seeing my expression exchange from shock, disbelief and grief as I watch this dog replay the last few weeks you've spent with him in his head," Edward replied in a spiteful tone. His jaw set, and I rejected the guilt that wanted to roll over in me.

"You have no place to say anything about that in this moment. Jake is my friend, and right now the flagging concern is your complacency with covering up what Alice did and why you went along with it. _**Were you ever going to tell me?!**_"

Edward stepped forward in my direction, his gold eyes wide with concern. I shushed the growl beginning to rumble from Jake closely behind me.

"I agreed with Alice that it seemed best to not tell you of your past when your memory was gone. I didn't want to hurt you, and I was hoping to save you from further pain. Your ignorance made you happy and you would have continued on that path until this mongrel interfered." Edward's bluntness pained me, but I knew he was honest by the sincerity reflecting in his eyes. His crystal gold eyes mistook my understanding. I imagined he was probably misreading my facial expression, as his eyes shone with a false sense of security that he thought I would be able to come back to him after this.

"No! Jake did what he thought was right! You don't get to play the victim here. **I am. **You can't control me. You were supposed to let me make my own choices. That's what partners do. And you had respected my choice. What Alice did was out of your hands, but you could have told me after I started calming down after my first few months as a newborn." I felt myself leaning back to collide with a solid surface. I was so focused on _them_ I hadn't realized the distance Jacob had closed between us for his physical support as things heated up.

"I did what I thought was best for you," Edward reasoned in a pleading tone. "As did the rest of my family. _I love you._ I understand your confusion with Jacob. You feel drawn to him because he told you of your past. _But,_ we're soul mates, _Jessica_." His level voice wavered a bit as I bet he was finally realizing the ramifications of his actions for "us".

I glanced swiftly at our audience. My former family. I regretted this was going to happen here and now. A family show down was just. But a break up was supposed to be private. My anger was now replaced by a deep hurt that seemed to not have a light at the end of a never-ending dark tunnel.

Every ounce of my sadness and grief I would come to endure in this immortal life I wanted to pin on them. And to ensure they all hurt, I was going to break Edward's heart in addition to Alice's.

"I don't believe in soul mates, Edward. I loved you. Before and after I became a vampire. If you told me the truth, we wouldn't be where we are today. But you made a choice and now we're reaping the consequences of it. It is over between us."

A part of me objected to what I was saying. What I was doing. I looked in Alice's eyes and for some reason my current pain flourished the most when taking in her defeated face. After a long, silent moment I hammered the nails in the coffin. "And I am parting from this family. I can't stand to look at you all anymore. _**We're not a family.**_ Family's wouldn't do that."

Alice cried while Edward remained as still as a statue upon the announcement of my decision. "Was this ever an outcome you saw, Alice?" I snarled while staying strong and pretending I wasn't hurting too. Because I was. I _really_ was. But they didn't deserve to know that.

"_No..._because the dog blocked it out," she whispered to the ground in a harsh, raspy voice as Jasper wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

I turned away from them in one swift motion and took Jake's hand as I pulled him with me. I knew he was dying to say something and instigate a fight by how his muscles twitched all over his body, but he knew that's not what I needed nor wanted in this moment. I just needed him by my side as I walked away with him towards the unknown. I knew the Cullen's wouldn't follow us. Despite their actions, I knew they respected me that much to let me go. And I resisted from turning around to run over and throw my fist in Alice's perfect face when I heard her whisper, "_Always_".

I clung to Jake's hand for dear life as my Dad's voice echoed in my ears for when I asked him how he defined love.

"_Love is when put the other person before yourself. Their wants, needs and happiness come before your own. It makes you happy to make them happy"._

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**AN:** _**Wow**_…are we really here? The next chapter is the end of this short story. Thanks for following me down the rabbit hole of this AU. It was fun to explore. I am a sucker for "_what ifs_" which you may be too if you've read up to this point. The fun of BWAIJ and JHEA and then this V&W, is that it is not just one storyline set in stone. There are options. Routes. You got to see what I saw for these characters. Maybe you yourself thought of your own separate adventures of how it would end? These stories/arcs wouldn't have been possible without you, my readers. Your follows/faves/reviews encouraged me that what I wanted to share was worth writing. It's a story and thanks for allowing me to share it with you. 'Til the end- _Lalaland972_

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**_LalaLand972's response to reviews:_**

_**WPear:**__ You brought up a good question about Alice and what she would say! So, I wanted to make sure Alice's response differed between this story and what we are going to see in the revised Ch 9 for Edward Arc in JHEA. In this story, Alice is making a sacrifice by not telling Jessica about her Katie life. Putting together she doesn't remember, she thinks she is saving Katie more pain by not triggering her to remember her parents/grandparents. Again, good intentions but Alice is missing the point Jessica doesn't want to be lied to about her past. Since Jake doesn't know about that side, he wouldn't be able to re-awaken memories for her. Thank you for the continued support! Love reading your reviews and that I haven't failed you so far with my updates :) haha _

_**MiharuTousaka:**__ Welcome to the Jess Arc! Glad you found it too! I didn't post an advertisement in JHEA with a new chapter/Author's note update when I started it to avoid upsetting those who really liked the Edward Arc. I figured if any readers stumbled upon it themselves, they would decide if they wanted to take the adventure to see what would happen in this scenario. Glad you have enjoyed! Hope you enjoy until the end! :)_


	10. Chapter 10

**[Jess Arc]**

"_The Vampire and the Wolf"_

**Chapter 10**

Jacob and I had a plan. We discussed it for hours, hammering out details and playing out different scenarios of what could happen. Yet here I was, still in La Push after arriving three days ago. I couldn't bring myself to go through with it.

I drew my head under the comforter of Jacob's bed when a knocking sound came from the bedroom door. "Jessica," Jacob called out in an exasperated tone. "You can do this. You have to try. _Please try_. For me. For them."

The mattress squeaked when Jacob sat on the bed beside me. "We, the pack, support you. Even the Council does. You know this. Why are you so afraid?"

My fear didn't stem from the Volturi at this point. Instead it grew from a deeper place in my soul. If I reconnected with my family, how much more would it hurt that they were leaving me some day while I had an eternity to live out? Wasn't it better for them to mourn me and me to mourn what I had? I would only inflict more damage on myself in the long run with the more time I had spent with them. I knew I was being selfish, but I needed that selfishness for my own self-preservation.

"Jacob, I can't endure the pain of knowing my time with them is finite. That's the problem!" I flung the covers off my upper body and sat up. My eyes resisted from trailing down Jacob's shirtless, tan torso. He was only wearing jean shorts, and I felt ashamed with how much desire I had come to feel towards him the last few days after officially breaking things off with Edward. Jacob would just be another thing to cause me pain knowing our time was finite as well. He wouldn't age as long as he shifted, but he wouldn't want that forever. Eventually he would settle down for a family and maybe even imprint. I was being delusional even wanting something more than friendship between us.

Jacob's dark eyes were downcast, seemingly focused on my left hand as his own hand inched over to it on the bed. I withdrew my hand from his reach before contact could be made. "_Really?_" Jacob scoffed in disapproval, but I knew he was masking the hurt from my rejection.

"I need to go." Jacob's hand retracted to his left thigh before he balled it into a fist.

"What? Where?"

"I need a clean break. Find my own way. I have to figure out how to do this life on my own. I-"

"I! **I! I! **_Geez_, it's always about you, isn't it?" Jacob's lips shifted into a deep frown while crossing his arms around his bare chest. I parted my lips to defend my reasoning, but Jacob cut me off. "What about me? This isn't just about you. You know how I feel, Jessica."

My head jerked back in shock. "No, I don't! You just said you wish you could have corrected the past with me!"

"Read between the lines!" Jacob growled. Then his irritated expression switched to a smug grin in a split second. _What the hell?!_

"Or be forthright with your words! _Ugh!_" I leapt up from the bed. I needed distance from Jacob because the heat between us was on the precipice of being some passionate blowout which I did _**NOT**_ need. "I don't want to form attachments that will be ripped away from me in the end because I am cursed with immortality. I- what are you doing?" Jacob had risen up from the bed halfway through my passionate speech and was closing the distance between us.

"We will figure it out," Jacob whispered before extending his right hand to cup my cheek. I wanted to pull away but when my eyes locked on his own, I was hooked in to stay put. "You know why?"

I shook my head and licked my lips in anticipation of perhaps what was coming next. "Because," Jacob leaned down and kissed my forehead, "I love you. I, Jacob Black, shapeshifting wolf, alpha of my pack, fell in love with a fricken vampire. Against nature for my kind. That type of love is worth the fight. We will make this work, if you want to be with me. Do you love me? What do you want?"

A kiss I had expected. Long overdue, in fact. But that? I hadn't seen that coming. Jacob had looked for me when I was missing and never gave up. I possibly could have never been forced to remember the truth without his help. He was patient with me as I was a different version of myself and a vampire when he found me after three years had passed by. His natural enemy. He loathed vampires. But me? He made an exception for me. And once again we became best friends. Along the way, I couldn't admit to myself I was falling for someone I could be all of myself with for the first time as a vampire. But would it be enough? I knew I had been selfish in wanting to just set off on my own. It would be easier for me. But what if I chose the more difficult path and accepted I would lose all the humans I loved one day, but still be with them and love them? I would be putting their needs, wants, and happiness before my own. What if even after they died, I could live with knowing I made them happy in their time on earth and could treasure that forever? Would that be doable? Putting them first?

Jacob was waiting for my answer with his arms wrapped around me in a tight embrace.

I knew what the only answer could be.

"I love you, Jacob Black. I have no heart, but I believe I have a soul and it loves you with everything it has." I craned my head up and choked back a sob when I saw the tears trailing down Jacob's beautiful face. I pulled his head down to my own and our lips brushed in the longest waited first kiss that took years and two friendships to build up to. Jacob was my best friend and now my lover. I would hold onto him as long as time and fate granted me that. Imprint be damned. IF he does, I will let him go. But for now, I choose to love him with everything I have.

Time flew by too fast when Jacob broke our kiss and the sunniest of grins adorned his face. A face I loved so much. "You know when I was younger my mother told me that life is a book, and you are the author of your own story. You are my favorite chapter in my book, and I want it to never end. _I love you_."

I wiped away my own tears with the back of my hand. "You think I look okay as a red head, right?" Jacob laughed while my fingers fiddled with the red hair spilling over my shoulders and I knew he didn't really care about what color my hair was. "Alright, let's go put our plan into action. I am ready to reunite with my mom, dad and Daniel. With you by my side, I can do anything."

…

_And the vampire and the wolf proved that love transcends the body which is really only a shell for the soul…_

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_**The End**_

**AN:** This was bittersweet to end and maybe why I put off writing it for so long. I wrote this like 10 different ways. Decided the shorter and more Jess/Jacob focused ending was the most appropriate. If you were hoping for her family to come into play, I am saving that for the new Edward Arc ending. Thanks for reading this AU - _Lalaland972_

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_LalaLand972's response to reviews:_

_**DxGRAYxMan:**__ Yay! Glad you are! Its in the works but has a lot of rewrites to go through before it is publishable T_T_

_**MiharuTousaka:**__ Last extra dose of Jacob is here T_T I hope you enjoyed it though!_


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